BUILDINGS COLLAPSE

Northlanders in Christchurch say a devastating earthquake has turned the garden city into a "warzone".
Northlanders caught up in yesterday's earthquake have told the Northern Advocate of their harrowing experiences as the ground shook around them.
Dominic Smith-Hodgson, from Whangarei, described watching emergency services working to free people trapped in two buses that had been crushed by tonnes of concrete after a building collapsed on to Colombo St.
"That wasn't pleasant at all. I was quite happy that I didn't see any of the injured people. It looked like the wall had just collapsed on the buses," he said. "There were massive pieces of concrete on top of the buses. It looked like they'd been through a car compactor as the top of the buses was just crushed right down. It looks like a warzone."
Mr Smith-Hodgson moved to Christchurch a week before the September 4 quake and said yesterday's was far worse.
He was at work in Hornby, not far from the centre of Christchurch, when he felt the earth move. "I thought it was just another aftershock at first. But it was pretty scary.
"Even though the last one hit at 4.30 in the morning this one was much scarier."
When the front of his car started shaking, Whangarei man Steve Pike thought his wheel was falling off.
But when he got out, he felt the whole ground shake and saw a two-storey brick building collapse in front of him.
Mr Pike, a bus driver, was on his way to work when the quake struck. He saw many people distressed and obviously scared by the ordeal and did his best to help - when the Northern Advocate caught up with him yesterday he was ferrying two marooned bus passengers home. "I'm stuck in traffic and have been for a couple of hours as it's virtually at a standstill. But I'm okay. There are some pretty distressed people around."
Mr Pike - also an artist known to many by his nickname Spike - has lived in Canterbury for about four years. He was back home in Whangarei in September and missed that quake.
But there was no avoiding yesterday's.
"When the car started shaking I thought my wheel was falling off so pulled over to check," he said.
"[But] the ground was rocking furiously and I saw this building collapse right in front of me. I figured out the car was okay so drove on to work. It was a very, very fascinating experience. The ground was rocking quite severely and there's been a number of aftershocks and people are looking very down.
"There's lots of liquefaction [where solid soil is converted into liquid] and piles of sand popping up everywhere. There's a lot of people looking very, very worried."
Mr Pike is due to move back to Whangarei shortly and said the earthquake was an experience he'd never forget.
"When the whole ground is really shaking like it's going nuts, and you are just watching everything moving backwards and forwards, it's not something you really want to go through."
Kaitaia man Jon Witlow, an electrician now working on Christchurch Airport's international terminal extension, was on the first level of the new building when the earthquake rattled through.
He described it as the most terrifying experience of his life.
"It was unbelievable and hard to describe. The whole building was shaking," Mr Witlow said.
"Things were falling off. Everyone just stood together and held on."
The airport was shut down and evacuated.
Mr Witlow was allowed back on site to check the wiring and was on the second level when an aftershock rocked the building again. "Everyone has been on 'No one expected or
prepared for this'
tenterhooks since the first quake but no one expected or was prepared for this one."
His wife and two young children were safe and sheltering with neighbours.
Whangarei student Courtney Wellington had just stepped out of the University of Canterbury after lectures at 12.50pm when the ground started shaking and her friend clutched on to her for support.
"It felt like a small aftershock at first, but it just got more violent with the shake, lasting about 30 seconds. On the way to the carpark we overheard a man telling his companions that his house had fallen down, he was ghost white and shaking. [It's] not a nice feeling watching the four-wheel-drive in front of me sway side to side. It was like being on a bumpy roller coaster," she said.