I have said on many occasions that I can't get my head around what it must be like living in Christchurch at the moment. I read Fiona's blog and Facebook entries. I watch the news on TV. I see the pictures. I think about it frequently every day. Yet I'm not capable of understanding. It's not that I don't want to understand. It is just that I can't. It must be hellish living through any natural disaster: be it a tsunami, a tornado, a flood, a fire or whatever. Lots of people live and are, at this moment, living through these things. The worst I've experienced is losing part of my house in Scotland in a hurricane. There is one large difference between all the ones I have mentioned and a major earthquake affecting a populated area: once it's over the survivors can try and start again. For the residents of Christchurch (and presumably those affected parts of Japan not wiped away by the tsunami) since there first 'quake last September there has been no reprieve.
I started drafting this post a few days ago when Katherine posted on The 'Quake Map and Fiona posted on The Red Zone. Today Fiona posted on: Life in the Land of the Long White Cloud: The long cruel winter cometh which was, in turn, an acknowledgement of Adrian's post The Cruel Long Winter Cometh upon which Fiona had commented.
At last I think I may be managing to get some inkling of what Cantabrians are going through.
I started drafting this post a few days ago when Katherine posted on The 'Quake Map and Fiona posted on The Red Zone. Today Fiona posted on: Life in the Land of the Long White Cloud: The long cruel winter cometh which was, in turn, an acknowledgement of Adrian's post The Cruel Long Winter Cometh upon which Fiona had commented.
At last I think I may be managing to get some inkling of what Cantabrians are going through.
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Thanks GB - watching the Quake Map again reminds me there is a good reason for us all feeling unsettled! Interesting watching the latest 1500 or so, and how they are so centred on the city now, compared to the first Sept one which was more west based.
ReplyDeleteBloody unbelievable really... when we all thought of earthquakes before all this, I can assure you we never thought of thousands of aftershocks or megatonnes of silt. Naive I guess....
Not taking the local newspaper except for Sunday, I can't say for sure that there is nothing about NZ and Japan's continuing to endure so-called aftershocks in our paper. (seems strange to call them that it's been 7 months since the NZ earthquake) But I continue to share your blogs on FB to up-date friends of your plight.
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