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Sixteen year old Xavier Trouslleot-Rhodes miraculously survived the wall in his bedroom collapsing when the Canterbury earthquake struck - Source: ONE News -
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A 16-year-old boy is lucky to be alive after his home collapsed around him while he was asleep on the top floor.
Xavier Trouslleot-Rhodes has just bruises and scrapes - a miracle considering his family's brick home in Darfield, 40 kilometres west of Christchurch, is utterly ruined.
As the big quake struck, the teenager sought safety by diving from his bed into the floor space between his bed and the wall.
"I thought if the roof was gonna collapse, that will be the safest place, sort of wedged between there (the bed and the wall).
"But unfortunately the wall collapsed, and I ended up rolling from the top storey of this house and smashing into the rubble on the floor."
Xavier went over the side of the house with the wall but then was pulled out of the rubble and able to see his bed hanging out from the open side of the top-storey.
Miraculously he is basically unhurt and got the all-clear with just bruises and cuts to report after an ambulance took him to hospital.
'I'm pretty lucky to be alive, so it's sort of up to God really," he told ONE News.
He knows the outcome could have been very different as the 90-year-old home was destroyed.
"If I hadn't moved from that bed within five seconds I probably would have been dead, crushed," Xavier said.
His brother was supposed to be sleeping in a bed that was completely crushed but ended up staying elsewhere.
Too close for comfort
Many other Cantabrians came too close for comfort to injury, or worse, as walls crumbled around them while they slept, raining bricks on their beds. Floors fell away beneath them.
Betty Wheeler has lived in her St Albans home for 50 years. Today the 85-year-old was struggling to cope with seeing it crumble.
"I knew it was an earthquake but I never thought it would be like it is - half the house is gone," Wheeler said in disbelief.
Wheeler is devastated that many of her family's treasures have been swallowed up by the quake.
"All the good things that I've been saving for the grandchildren have gone," the tearful grandmother said.
But she is counting her blessings that her son, Brian, made it out of one of the rooms in time.
"If he'd stayed in his room another minute he could've been killed - the whole wall just collapsed," the elderly woman said.
Brian told ONE News he was "pretty lucky indeed."
Close calls
In fact their whole street appears to be the street of close calls, with another person just two doors down from the Wheelers escaping with his life after the wall beside him collapsed as he slept.
Marsha Witehira was woken by her friend Tama Wharepata, who came running into her room and grabbed her.
"He pulled me down the bed by my feet and by the time he'd done that a brick had fallen from the wall right down beside my head," she said.
"I had just made it under the doorway and then the next minute my house was falling down around me."
Marsha, 30, said it had been just coincidence Tama, also 30, had been staying in her lounge last night, and that she usually lived alone.
"It's pretty incredible. To look at it now, it's mind blowing," she said.
"Had he not been there I wouldn't have survived to speak about it today, that's for sure. It's pretty evident when you look at the house, and the bricks are all over the bed."
"I'm so grateful to Tama, my number one hero right now, and I'll certainly have a story for the rest of my life to tell," she said.
Marsha said the house had continued to crumble today as aftershocks shook the area.
"There's no doubt in my mind that the house will be gone by tonight if this continues."
She said she was not sure where she would be spending the night, and that she was waiting for Civil Defence to speak to her about an evacuation plan.
"If I have to leave the property I have to leave it completely unsecured and this is my life sitting in there. It's just devastating to think I'm walking away from everything completely."
Several other properties on her street had been destroyed, she said.
"A house two along from mine has experienced exactly the same thing as me, where the home is completely unlivable. It's horrific.
"I guess I just have to count my lucky stars again that we're all safe and alive."
For more information visit the Civil Defence website
Did you experience the Canterbury quake? Do you have images or video or CCTV footage of the earthquake? Send them into news@tvnz.co.nz
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Add a Comment:
Post new commentgordy said on 2010-09-09 @ 13:59 NZDT: Report abusive post
Im my 51 years on this earth I have never felt so pertrified..my first thoughts was we had been hit by a nuclear bomb and it was Armageddon. Never ever want to experience it again
schicken said on 2010-09-08 @ 19:15 NZDT: Report abusive post
I thought the same thing initially. However, another quake big enough to close or shift the cracks further is likely to be heard first and all the kids will most likely be fine. If a child does get swallowed up, I'm probably not going to have huge empathy for the media coverage or their parents, but until then, let the region have a little bit of fun. Education about health risks regarding contaminated water may be a good idea for all. :)
thinkaboutit said on 2010-09-06 @ 23:06 NZDT: Report abusive post
More great coverage tonight TVNZ especially highlighting the situation at individual community levels where people reported they felt abandoned. All credit to those organising themselves into community working groups at this level despite this. Arguably the recovery process would be greatly enhanced if these community groups were psychologically and practically supported by establishing official coordination centres at individual community levels.
Madeleine Ware said on 2010-09-06 @ 17:31 NZDT: Report abusive post
You're making some good points here. Perhaps some of the donations could be towards purchasing and setting up storage of these sorts of things. Individuals are also responsible for making their own preparations. I clean and keep old 3L juice bottles filled with water. Every now and then I water my house plants with one and refill it to refresh it.
Madeleine Ware said on 2010-09-06 @ 17:25 NZDT: Report abusive post
Why are they buying water? Aren't there several tankers about the city giving it away?