Ex-Rotherham woman tells of earthquake terror

Maureen Manewell, who use to live in Broom Valley, says she left her library job early on Tuesday .  . . just minutes before the building was destroyed in the earthquake.

"Something was telling me to go home,” she said. "“Someone was watching over me and I’m so very, very lucky. I always stop in town on the way home and I needed petrol but I just thought ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’ and went home"

“God knows what would of happened if I had stayed.”

Husband Roy, a lift maintenance technician originally from Kimberworth Park, was driving when the country’s worst natural disaster for 80 years hit.

He said: “I thought something was wrong with the car at first because I had no control and was going all over the street.”

Maureen and Roy, who have lived in the city since 1987, described the devastation and horrors caused by the quake, which has claimed at least 100 lives.

Maureen said: “We live in a two-storey house and I thought it was going to collapse. There was a sudden huge roar sound and then I lost my footing, all the drawers were flying open and bricks falling down.

“This is a really scary time for us and sadly many of our friends have lost their homes and have nowhere to live.

“We’re doing everything we can to make them more comfortable and getting on with life, but it is hard to do when the aftershocks are still continuing and still are as big as 5.1.”

Maureen and Roy lived at Whiston after marrying at St Bede’s Church in 1975. They

moved to New Zealand with children Lisa and Neil (now 28 and 26) and have since had 19-year-old Leia.

Roy has spent much of the week checking no-one is trapped inside lifts and ensuring the hospital ones are working so the thousands of injured can be treated.

Maureen said: “It’s such a scary feeling. Only half an hour before I had walked the streets where all the buildings collapsed and could have been one of those who died.

“There are still after shocks and Roy is on call. The hospitals need working lifts so he has to work.

“It’s just like a bomb has dropped in the city. Halswell seems okay this time, our house has a few cracks in the walls but we are still here so we are happy.

“Our city is destroyed,” she said. “Our friends have lost everything. There is no way of stopping Mother Nature."

All we can do is stay positive, look after each other and hope that things don’t get any worse.”