CASTLEWELLAN man Conor McDermott, from Forest Park View, has been describing his experiences in the aftermath of the weekend’s major earthquake in New Zealand.

Conor lives in Christchurch, where the earthquake, measuring 7.1 on the Richter Scale, had its epicentre.

He told the Mourne Observer: “At 4.30am on Saturday I was awoken by a huge earthquake. Due to the force of the shake I was unable to move from my bed and lay there until it had stopped.

“I got up and checked on my house mates and neighbours to see if they were all right. I then returned to bed as nothing in the house had been damaged.

“At 6.30 I drove into work [Conor works in a home for autistic people] and the full scale of what had happened suddenly hit me. There were sirens going off in every direction and cars were moving at a very slow speed.

“I saw huge gaps in the tarmac roughly a foot across and there were other instances of huge slabs of concrete, many tonnes in weight, sticking out from the ground. Water mains were broken and water gushed upwards into the air flooding roads and houses.

“After getting to work,” he explained, “I phoned round friends to see if they were all right and everyone seemed to be fine though in one instance a work colleague’s foundations had sunk into the sand on which it had been built.

Evidence of the major damage in Christchurch, New Zealand.

“She was later informed that the house was no longer structurally sound and there was the possibility of demolition.”

Conor continued: “Later that day we were informed via the 24-hour news coverage that the military had been sent in and people were being discouraged from going sightseeing in the city centre as that was where a large amount of the damage had been caused and there was the danger of falling masonry.

“Two days on and we are still experiencing aftershocks of around 5 on the Richter Scale and water has to be boiled as there is the danger of contamination with sewage.

“Although people in the city have banded together as a community there is still a tense undercurrent as there is a warning of bigger earthquakes to come, as well as a fear of tsunamis if the next one hits at sea.

“On a lighter note, while on the beach a huge leviathan had been swept up by the huge swells and drew quite a crowd. I later discovered it was a sun fish,” Conor concluded.