Emily Fountain got a rude awakening early Saturday morning — literally — when she found herself in the midst of the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that rocked New Zealand.

Fountain, a 1997 graduate of Lancaster Catholic High School, and her husband, Ben Wiseman, were sleeping in their Christchurch apartment when the major quake struck New Zealand's South Island at 4:35 a.m.

(New Zealand is 16 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, so it was early Friday afternoon here when the earthquake hit.)

Speaking by cell phone about the experience, Fountain said she and Wiseman were suddenly awakened as the house shook nonstop for a couple of minutes, knocking over bookshelves and emptying cabinets.

The Associated Press said only two serious injuries were reported in the earthquake. There were reports of people trapped inside buildings, though none appeared to be crushed by rubble, and a few looters broke into damaged shops in Christchurch, which has a population of 400,000.

Power was cut, roads were blocked by debris, and gas and water supplies were disrupted, the AP reported.

A state of emergency was declared, with army troops on stand-by. Schools also were set up as emergency shelters for people forced out of their homes. The quake was centered 19 miles west of Christchurch, according to GNS Science, New Zealand's state geological agency.

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker told a New Zealand news station, "We're all feeling scared — we've just had some significant aftershocks. Tonight we're just people in the face of a massive natural disaster, trying to help each other."

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key flew to Christchurch to inspect the damage, and said initial assessments suggest repairs to infrastructure and buildings could cost at least $1.4 billion. He said it was "an absolute miracle" no lives were lost.

The region sits on active fault lines, Fountain said, and "they kept telling us we were overdue" for an earthquake.

But she and her husband were very fortunate to suffer minimal damage and still have power and water, she said. Just a few blocks away, walls had collapsed and streets were split, with soil and sand pushing up through fissures in the road.

"Our street lucked out," Fountain said.

The quake also was succeeded by "quite a few violent aftershocks," she said.

GNS Science said 29 aftershocks were recorded in the 14 hours following the earthquake, ranging in magnitude from 3.7 to 5.4.

Fountain and Wiseman, who've been married less than a year, are students at Lincoln University, where she is pursuing a doctorate in evolution biology. The university is south of Christchurch.

Experts said the country's strict building codes made an enormous difference.

"New Zealand has very good building codes ... [that] mean the buildings are strong compared with, say, Haiti," earth sciences professor Martha Savage told the AP.

"It's about the same size [quake] as Haiti, but the damage is so much less. Though chimneys and some older facades came down, the structures are well-built," said Savage, who teaches at Victoria University in Wellington.

Among those greatly relieved the damage wasn't worse, considering the severity of the quake, was Fountain's mother, Mount Joy resident Diane Simaska.

"It just was amazing" no one died, she said.

Paula Wolf is a staff writer for the Sunday News. She can be reached by e-mail at pwolf@lnpnews.com.