Juliannne Haag was in her hotel room in Christchurch, N.Z., resting after a flight from Antarctica, when the earth’s violent spasm began Monday.

The Keyport woman stood under a door jamb for safety and watched as her bed and desk seemingly floated across the room. When the 6.3 earthquake stopped, she was safe. And fortunate.

At least 65 people were killed in the quake, which struck Christchurch at 1 p.m. local time. People were trapped in collapsed buildings. Power and telephone service were out. Pipes burst and streets flooded. The spire of the 130-year-old Christchurch Cathedral — a historic landmark and a National Treasure of New Zealand — was toppled. 

Prime Minister John Key was quoted in news reports as saying Feb. 21 “may well be New Zealand’s darkest day.”

Four hours passed before Haag, daughter of Jeff and Kathleen Haag of Keyport, was able to let people know through her Facebook page that she was OK. 

“She is safe and unhurt,” her father said Tuesday. “I feel reasonably pretty calm. We had a lot of people offering their prayers and thoughts and well wishes (on Facebook) for our daughter, as well as the other people over there.”

Haag, a 2008 graduate of North Kitsap High School and 2010 graduate of Cottey College in Nevada, Mo., worked for five months for a contractor providing food service for Raytheon Corp. at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. She was on her way home, on a stopover in New Zealand, when the earthquake hit.

“As of this moment, I am at the Clothing Distribution Center of the Antarctic Center at the Christchurch Airport,” she wrote in a Facebook message Tuesday afternoon. “Many of the Antarctic people gathered here to stay the night, though I heard one of my friends built a shelter in the park to stay at. I will not fly out today but Raytheon is working on securing tickets for me. Today though, I will not be able to get out.”

Jeff Haag, music director for Kingston Middle School, said his daughter was working in Antarctica to raise money to continue her college education — Cottey is a two-year college — and to “do something different.”

“It’s been quite an adventure,” he said. “We’re very thankful she’s safe.”

The earthquake struck while a U.S. delegation of 43 business, community and government leaders was in Christchurch for a US-New Zealand Partnership Forum, to promote trade; the U.S. Embassy in New Zealand said in a statement that all were safe. Among those in the delegation: Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett. He wrote on his Facebook page that he went to a Wellington church and shared a prayer for the people of Christchurch.

Nations are sending disaster relief and search-and-rescue teams to the stricken area.

New Zealand’s Environment Ministry is providing quake updates on its website.