Her fate?

Yesterday I posted a link to a mobile phone conversation between a woman trapped under her desk in a collapsed office building in Christchurch and a tv station.

She said she had not had contact with rescuers.

What happened?

Late yesterday rescuers pulled her out alive with broken ribs and cuts. She is recovering in hospital.

Ms Vos said she had plenty of time trapped under four-storeys of rubble to reassess her priorities in life - if she made it out alive.

''Like not worrying about stupid things like: 'Oh my god, where's my bag?','' she said. ''What does that matter? They are things you can replace later. You can't replace people.''

The randomness of death, injury, escape in disasters always intrigues me.

There are amazing stories of missing death by seconds or centimetres and while some people are being rescued the death toll now stands at a confirmed ninety eight. Very sadly babies are amongst the dead, which I always think is somehow the saddest thing. One of just five months old and another nine months old are amongst the confirmed dead.

Over two hundred people are still missing and the rescue services say hope of finding any more survivors is almost zero.  They've had no sounds or signs of life in over twenty-four hours.




The report is here.