Jessie, 100, chills out in Wanganui | Manawatu-Wanganui News | Local News in Manawatu-Wanganui

The devastation of quake-ridden Christchurch led 100-year-old Jessie Rosier to pack up and leave for a safe haven in Wanganui.

But, for this very elderly refugee, her flight is only temporary. She is determined to return south once the home she shares with her daughter and son-in-law is back in order.

On Saturday morning Mrs Rosier was in bed in West Melton, just 10km from the Darfield epicentre of the 7.1 magnitude earthquake. She said the experience of the shaking and rolling was scary because you never knew when the quake was going to stop.

Even though it was in the early hours, her survival instinct took over when she asked her daughter Anne Bouterey what she should do.

The family wasn't going anywhere until pathways had been cleared through the fallen debris, but relocating Mrs Rosier to a safe haven in Wanganui with another daughter, Joan Rosier-Jones, was a priority.

Glass had shattered throughout the house and it was without water and power for three days; the home is on an artesian bore.

Mrs Rosier-Jones said her mother's flight from Christchurch to Palmerston North was an hour late leaving due to a power cut. That was a relief to Mrs Rosier-Jones, because the flooding on Monday meant it took an hour to get to Turakina after detouring through Fordell, and once back on SH3 she struck gridlocked traffic: "I sat in the traffic queue for 20 minutes, not knowing what was going on, with no traffic coming from the opposite direction."

Mrs Rosier-Jones who did not know the plane was late, arrived in Palmerston North with 20 minutes to spare.

When the Chronicle arrived, Mrs Rosier's memoirs, Jessie's Story, which she wrote six years ago, sat on the coffee table, memoirs she had written about the February 1931 Napier quake, which she felt in Wellington.

"I was on the third floor of a building in Cuba St, which shook and shook. It was pretty scary," she said. "Wellington did not suffer the earthquake by any means, but we certainly felt it."

Mrs Rosier is booked to return to Christchurch on September 21. She is philosophical.

"That's my home. You take what comes and hope for the best."