[Pitufo]

A big hug from FRANCE!!!!!!

[SmurfingH]

A mate of Daryl's has posted on his facebook page to say that Daryl is ok and staying at his parents' house. His own house is very broken.

Sorry to hear about your house Daryl but so relieved you're ok mate!!

[Tintin]

Hi

Very sad about the house but glad Daryl is ok !!!!!

Tintin

[bwalters]

That is really great news.

[Tojo]

That's a huge relief that he's safe, thanks for passing that on to us Hilary.

Very bad news about his house though especially as it only suffered minor damage in the last quake. My thoughts are with him.

[Cassiebsg]

Glad that Daryl is ok , sorry about the house, but at least that can be rebuilt.

[Gerda]

Everytime Ihear of a tragedy like this happening I try hard not to pay attention or i'll get overwelmed with emotion, but hearing how it affects someone you knows life (even if I never met Daryl personally, he is still smurf family) then it just hits a little too close to home. Just glad he is safe!

[SmurfingH]

That's exactly how I felt Gerda!

[bwalters]

Maybe I should do like you Gerda. I have always paid attention. And I do get overwhelmed with emotion too often. I think mainly because in most cases I can't do anything about it.

[Smurfysmurf]

Daryl posted this on Facebook (hope he doesn't mind me posting it here)

I'm back!!
by Daryl Barkle on Thursday, February 24, 2011 at 1:30am
Hi guys ... I'm back having power restore this afternoon I've been cooking all the frozen food thats been dethoring in the freezer and ferrying it and hot water to my parents. We have been all sleeping in their living room just so we are together. A new feature of the house is that I can pass notes to myself under the walls as the floor has sunk away detaching from the walls above. The house has twisted and skewed so can't open the garage front or back doors. The weirdest thing is despite the mess most things still work... and that quote from before the quake still holds true! The TV areal ripped from the wall in my bedroom, the wall has separated from the floor and the TV picked up off the floor with broken set of draws leaning on it, the TV still works!!.. I have fixed the set of draws and tidied it up. The microwave was upside down on the floor.. the glass plate was okay and despite the corner being dented it still works!! The gym set is munted but I haven't used the weights in a number of years due to my bung shoulders. This computer was on its side and it still works!! Home theatre looks a bit scratched but still works!! I'm just going through all the items I picked up off the floor testing them. The smurf house was on its side and the small blue occupants have all been accounted for and are living in a makeshift cardboard box until my house is rebuilt. I doubt this can be fixed now. Its a demolish and rebuild job. The dust sheet that covered Norman the gnome was covering him when I pulled him from the mess. A grizzly find at the best of times!

[SmurfingH]

So good to hear he hasn't lost his sense of humour!

[Tojo]

He's certainly got guts I really hope that he's insured although I expect that the insurance companies are going to be overwhelmed over the next few months...

[PonySmurf]

Does anyone have contact info for Darryl? I'd love to help him out in some way.

[SMURFYSTEVE1]

Hi all well I had a chat with Darryl last night and hes holding up ok hes been out and got a few replacement items and Norman the gnome has suvived ok he all so said his smurfs say hello to all.
he seems to be doing ok and is just trying to get things straight, well as straight as he can under the cercumstances.

Smurfy regards
Steve

[Tojo]

Thanks for keeping us up to date Steve

[PonySmurf]

My one friend (Julie) who lives down there is okay! Whew.

She's packed up what's left of her stuff and plans on "moving back to Auckland" within the next 2 weeks. She's had it with the quakes.

[bwalters]

Well you can't hardly blame her for that. About a hundred and fifty miles south of me last night there was a 4.7 earthquake. However at the sametime the sirens were going off for a tornado warning. Max was barking, which is what woke me. I heard the sirens and jumped up to turn on the TV. My county was under a tornado warning, but it was about 15 miles south of me.

[Smurfysmurf]

I am glad she is ok . I don't blame her either...we are used to being under Tornado watches and warnings around here but I definitely do not want to live in an earthquake area.

If I understand it correctly though, Christchurch didn't even know they are an earthquake area until the one late last year

[PonySmurf]

yes there are several major faultlines in New Zealand... the major one runs right through Wellington! I mean the running "joke" is that if Welly ever gets a 7 (or greater) the whole city will just fall back into the water. So for Christchurch to get one this damaging is, yes, a shock.

[Ritter_Schlumpfenherz]

I'm thinking of you.