Just in – received this in an email.

It’s hard for us to get clear information about what is going on at the moment – have bits and pieces from the internet and TV and word of mouth which I kind of pieced together.

It definitely seems like the worst is behind us – the military and extra police from Auckland have come to the city and are securing the CBD tonight in case any more buildings collapse there. I haven’t seen a lot of the CBD, because most of the damaged streets were already cordoned off when I went to town today. Have just seen a few photos and heard stories from friends, so don’t know how much of it is exaggerated. There is certainly a lot of rubble around. The police have instituted a curfew tonight from 7pm to 7am – again we are not really sure if this is the whole city or just the CBD, but they said they could arrest people who were found on the streets, so we are not leaving the house just to be on the safe side.

No fire in the city anymore as far as I know, the biggest issue is trying to get the sewage system working. Apparently because treatment plants have shut down there is now raw sewage being pumped into the river that flows throughout the whole city. Earlier they were talking about using the river water to supply water to the city, so I don’t know. We don’t know if our water is safe to drink, and whether we are allowed to wash or showers. There seems to be plenty of water in our taps, so I don’t really understand why they are saying so much about a water shortage. We have just been told several times to save water as much as we can and not flush toilets. Hopefully in the morning we will have a clearer picture of what is happening.

Phone and internet are still working, don’t know if this is the case for the whole city. Last I heard they had restored power to 90% of the city earlier this evening. Cellphone towers were running on battery power earlier today, and the networks were overloaded, but they seem better now. They keep saying not to use cellphones or leave the house unless it is an emergency, but of course it’s hard to not call your friends and family!

We will try and keep you posted visit: http://azworldpages.com/newzealandquake2010/