Cantab MP tells Parliament of quake trauma and terror | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

A Canterbury MP has told Parliament the rest of the country might not understand the huge emotional impact of Saturday's earthquake and the terror of living through continuous aftershocks.

``I think there's a sense that the earthquake was something that happened for about a minute-and-a-half early Saturday morning,'' National's Selwyn MP Amy Adams said.

``The reality is that it's very much still happening.

``Everyone in Canterbury, almost to a man, woman and child, are feeling frazzled, frayed and terrified. They are short of sleep, they are wandering around wondering whether the next shock is the big one.

``A truck comes by and you don't know whether to dive under the desk, head to the shelter, grab your kids...it is like living in a permanent state of fear and that fear, over the last five days, has done more to damage the psyche of Canterbury than the short shock on Saturday morning.''

In an emotional speech Ms Adams said until Cantabrians could feel they were actually through the crisis and knew what the damage was, starting to rebuild and move forwards was going to be really hard.

``I spoke to a guy this morning whose house was green-stickered on Monday only to be condemned today,'' she said.

``Every time Canterbury shakes, the picture changes for us.''

Ms Adams said her house was near the epicentre of Saturday's quake.

``Many of us are living in houses right now, as I am, that you don't know when you go to bed whether it will be standing when you get up,'' she said.

``There are parts of my house I'm not allowed in and that's fine, at least it's still standing and we can rebuild, and everyone is fine, but it is the fear that's difficult to explain.

``I think those moments on Saturday morning are being relived by us every time we go to bed. The physical violence of your house being thrown around is hard to believe...it is hard to believe you house can stand the sort of forces that were being imposed on it.''

Ms Adams said she had been absolutely certain her house would collapse.

``My daughter was in the next room, we were screaming for her, we couldn't get to her and when we did we found the fish tank had flown across the room and smashed on her bed. It missed her head by inches.''

Ms Adams said that sort of story was being heard all the time.

``It's incredibly hard, it's incredibly challenging and it's going to take Canterbury a huge amount of time to recover,'' she said.

``The physical impact is the least of it. The emotional trauma is massive and it's getting worse. The financial trauma is only adding to it.''

Ms Adams said people didn't know whether they had jobs to go back to, factories didn't know whether they were going to be able to open again and businesses didn't know when they were going to be able to trade again.

``It may seem like a few broken buildings on TV but it's much more than that to a huge number of people,'' she said.

``I know we're all incredibly lucky and no one was killed...but now the reality of what this is going to take to turn around is really hitting home.''