Christchurch is Open

Over the last whilse since the Christchurch earthquakes devastated the city I have received much of the 'real' information to which I can relate from Fiona of Four Paws and Whiskers.  Today she has posted a short YouTube video which is the first one which has left me with positive and happy rather than emotional and pensive feelings.  For a happy few minutes visit Christchurch is Open.

Christchurch - One Year Later

Napier has just celebrated Art Deco weekend.  This is not just a celebration of Napier's Art Deco heritage.  It is also the weekend when the Napier earthquake of 1931 is remembered and the efforts of those who re-built the city from the ruins are commemorated.

The Napier quake happened on Tuesday 3 February 1931.  This day last year, 80 years 19 days 2 hours and 4 minutes after the Napier Quake the February Quake struck Christchurch.

I know of no better way of showing you the outcome of the Christchurch Quake than suggesting you visit Fiona's post A Quake Milestone next week - One Year Later.

My comment on Fiona's post was:

Few who are living today and who has not lived through all that Cantabrians have lived through over the last year can have any true idea what it has been like.  Perhaps some of the very senior residents of Napier when the 1931 earthquake struck can remember it.  But for people like me who have followed this blog over the last year it is unimaginable.  That does not stop it having been an extremely harrowing and emotional experience.  The difference is that when I have wiped the tears temporarily from my eyes and the thoughts temporarily from my mind I am free of the aftershocks and living with the daily physicality of the City.

I have said it many times before and I can but repeat it: I cannot imagine what you are all going through and my heart goes out to you.

I cannot think of a better summing up for the day than that by Fiona summed at the end of her post:

It is certainly not all sad - there continue to be pluses among the changes; it has been nice to meet new people, have different friendships, changed priorities and re-appreciate the small stuff, families, a roof over our heads. Just today we talked at work about how good it was to enjoy certain things - and I mentioned that just having constant power and water still seems a huge positive to me!

You really don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.

I hope you will think of us all at 12.51pm Wednesday 22nd Feb as we observe two minutes silence.

I know that I shall.

Christchurch Hit Again

Within the last hour or so Christchurch has been hit by two more severe earthquakes.  Ironically I saw the information on the BBC and then got an Facebook message from Fiona in Christchurch.  There do not appear to be any serious casualties but the physical, psychological and financial damage to the City and its people must be horrendous.   Fiona said "Armageddon has come back".  I feel sick for the people who have suffered so much in the last year.

Christchurch: Living With Earthquakes

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.

Thankful Thursday

I was woken at 2am this morning by a phone call from the UK.  Phone calls in the middle of the night rarely bring good news and this was no exception.  The call was from the friend whom I've mentioned before who, in January, was given three months to live.  He was alone.  Needless to say I didn't sleep much after that.

I had to be out at 7.45 for the tournament that's on this week in which we (Mike from Gisborne who's staying with me, and I are playing) so this morning I had no time for the Thankful Thursday posting and this evening it was nearly 9pm by the time we finished dinner.

Looking back on the day I could have been very thankful for nearly 8 hours play on the lawns in the beautiful warm sun.  Even more so because I won all my games.  But somehow I hadn't got the heart after the way I felt this morning.  My good feelings seemed outweighed by the personal tragedy on the other side of the world.

To be honest the horrors of Japan and the Middle East are so awful they don't even enter into the equation because they are not personal enough any more.  Christchurch is closer to home but even that isn't personal enough although after reading Fiona's latest post Frustrations and Changes - Looking for Silver Linings I did rather selfishly thing thankful thoughts that I wasn't there.

So I almost didn't do a Thankful Thursday.

Then a wonderful thing happened.  I looked at the blog postings today and Jaz, who started Thankful Thursday, had posted.  And suddenly I felt thankful; really, truly, wonderfully thankful.

If you can read her Thankful Thursday and not be moved then you are made of harder stuff than I am.

You Know You Are From Christchurch When....

As usual the source of much of my Christchurch information is Fiona from Four Paws and Whiskers.  I have just spent a while reading the following from DUTCHCORNER by Marja which Fiona posted today:

You know you are from Christchurch when …
... you can see irony in claims about houses made of “permanent materials”
... your 4 year old says "that was another cornflake"
... you know you haven’t taken any drugs - but life is sooooo distorted you might as well have!!!
... you can pick Richter scale numbers more easily than Lotto numbers.
... you have written a list of at least 40 songs that should never be played on radio during earthquakes. Such as "We built this city on rock and roll". "I feel the earth move under my feet..."
... when spring cleaning actually means cleaning the spring that has appeared in your yard!!
… you call her your "Mother Nature Inlaw" coz she causes you stress and shakes things up
… Geonet is your homepage
… looking over the fence, you discover that the grass isn't always greener on the other side
… you work at a bottle store and have a new shelf system; the most expensive bottles are now on the bottom shelf rather than the top
… you have no idea what the value of your house is!
… when Civil Defence is text spamming you
… your filing system reverts to the 'volcano principle' - a huge pile over the floor, with the most important papers rising to the top
… a doctor recommends having a few stiff drinks before bed to help you sleep
… they close all the welfare centres except the one closest to the epicentre of the after shocks
… when you fly out of Christchurch you see a psychologist, when you fly in you see a psychiatrist
… "Rainy" is the best weather for cycling you've had all week!
… you can spot the recent arrivals by seeing who stops what they're doing during aftershocks
… rather than use the word “God” you replace it with “Bob”. In Bob we trust.
... your partner squeals and squirms in ecstasy again, even more energetically than yesterday. Then you realise its only because the hot water cylinder in now full and hot for the first time in 12 days.
… when fast food is anything that takes less than 2 days to purchase prepare and gather at the table long enough to eat it
… when a Portaloo in the street as your main loo is aspirational
… when you are happy two policemen came for a visit
… it has become the home school capital of the world
… the answer to where anything is ... it’s on the floor
… our 3 year old can say "liquefaction" clear as a bell but couldn't tell you their own address!!!
… when you currently live in London (hence “munted” doesn't enter conversation much) and both your parents have said it at least once to you on the phone (having never heard them use the term before EVER)
… your friends and family want you to move back to Invercargill....and it sounds like a good idea!!!
… you've only shovelled silt for an hour or two but you fully expect to end up with Michelle Obama arms.
… half the population of children in your city come from 'broken homes'
… the roads home are bumpier than a 13 year olds face
… instead of rushing to the clothes line to get clothes in when it rains, you put dirty washing on the line in the hope that it will rain enough to clean them
… you build your wooden balancing elephants into a DIY seismometer and cheer when it comes down
… Metservice includes a graph for dust
… a group of students turn up at your place and leave it in a better condition than when they arrived
… you look up and see your neighbour and realise that he's taking a leak on the same section of fence that you are
… “nothing major” is how you describe losing your chimneys, half your foundation cracking, your tv smashing, most of the contents of you cupboard ending in small pieces on your floor, your white ware relocating itself and making odd noises they never used to and no longer being able to open or shut any door in your house, in fact not even being sure if your house is still liveable … you know, “we got off lightly, nothing major”!
… thoughtful dinner guests bring a bottle of water instead of a bottle of wine
… you find you start 'talking back' to the earthquakes (in a rather impolite manner)
… you've mastered the wide legged brace and surf position with out ever having had surfing lessons
… a bucket with a lid is a new 'must have' item
… the aftershocks have aftershocks
… you have tied the pantry, liquor cabinet and all the cupboard doors closed and its not to keep kids out
… you feel guilty because you have power and water
… you're so happy to get mail, it doesn't matter it's all bills!
… "Christchurch rocks" is a pun
… you go shopping and your trolley fills itself
… you realise this is the first time you've seen inside that church and you're actually driving past it at the time
… you think "It's the weekend, I must get my water boiled for the week"
… when a digger arrives you hear cheers of madness like the Crusaders are scoring a try
… you visit places like Tripoli and admire what they have done to the place!
… you tell the kids off for flushing the toilet
… Hubby can finally say to all and sundry "see told you it would come in handy one day!"
… you don't get out of bed for anything less than a 5
… when Mellow Yellow doesn't make you think of an old Donavon song
… please don’t remain seated – your instructions are under your table mat and helmet under your seat ( new restaurant regulations)
… you're actually JEALOUS when your friends go to work
… discussing toilet habits with total strangers is an everyday norm
… the census forms arrive but you have no address to put on it
… rather than moving house, the house moves you
… your teenagers are only too happy to sleep in the same room as their parents
… when going for a chocolate mission actually is a mission
… the top party game is guess the magnitude of the last aftershock
… you're in the pub for a 4.8 and everyone's main concern in holding on to their drinks!
… you take a plastic bag with you when you go for a walk, even though you don't have a dog
… you know that wheelbarrows come in two basic designs - metal ones which are heavy to lift when filled with silt, and plastic ones which break under the weight of silt
… the new fashion accessory is a spade
… you don't think twice when friends come round and ask “Is it ok to go toilet anywhere or do you have special place to do it?”
… you know how to spell "liquefaction" and "seismic"
… the little pre school boys don't get excited when they see (another) digger or a dozer
… you can’t decide whether to finish doing number twos or just get off the loo and run!!!!!!
… you find the price of wine has gone down but the price of wine glasses has gone up!
… you have a full length mirror in the garage so you can see if your gumboots match your outfit
… you’re about to have the best lemon harvest ever
… using a Portaloo is one of life’s luxuries!
… you never fill your hot drinks more than three-quarters full
… you think electronics that have "shock proof" should say to which earthquake magnitude
… you start considering aftershocks as exercise - anything that raises your heart rate that much must be good for you right?
… you suddenly realise what would be the perfect modern "urban camouflage" look for Doctor Who's Tardis: a blue Portaloo
… you've learned the difference between at least six incompatible types of propane/butane cylinder and where you can't use each one - and it's only 11am
… you would prefer to sit under the table instead of at it
… you think the earthquake house in Te Papa sucks
… “munted” and “buggered” are official technical terms
… your 3 year old's latest new words are liquefaction and miracle
... you recognise food immediately because it's all on toast
... the news has become your favourite tv viewing
... you sleep in one suburb, shower in another, collect water from another, go to the toilet where you can, and still smile and greet people like you are one big family
... you know what that extra gear leave in your 4 x 4 is for
... you don’t blame your local council for bad roads, paths or drainage
... liquefaction has become a saying or slang. “That guy is full of liquefaction.” “ I had some takeaway last night which gave me a bad dose of liquefaction.”
... you know and actually understand the terms and conditions of your House and Contents insurance policy
... having a third person under a door frame is no longer an invasion of personal space
... you invite the crew from Mythbusters to challenge the theory of “wet sand or dry sand?” and which is easier to move
... you carry toilet paper and handwash in your car, your handbag, your backpack, or anywhere else you can, and you don’t care who sees it
... you’d rather live in a house made of straw than a house made of bricks
... you stopped joking about turning your undies and socks inside out to get another days wear
... you now understand the hippy lifestyle and all its quirks
... cross dressing is now accepted city wide
... you stop using the term “built like a brick sh*t house”
... its normal to greet people with “do you need a shower?”
... everybody starts to look like that dirty dodgy person that wanders around your neighbourhood
... your en suite has a vege garden, dog kennel and grass
... a self cleaning toilet is a bucket upside down on your garden sprinkler
... choosing your next stable career option, you consider Portaloo technician
... you DON’T call the police when there is a massive group of students in the middle of your street

Thanks Marja
Too good not to share!
http://dutchcorner.blogspot.com/2011/03/you-know-youre-from-christchurch-when...

The Earthquake: A Personal View

I, and those who know me well, know that I'm a rather emotional person and even though that may not be regarded as one of a man's most manly and desirable qualities I really don't give a damn.  That's just how I am.  So I am quite ready to say that when the TV or Radio News brings us interviews and comments and news from quake-stricken Christchurch I sometimes have difficulty holding back the tears.  After all I, like hundreds of thousands of others,  have walked down those streets, have been in that Cathedral, have been in that Mall.  My last visit was less than a year ago which, in geological terms, is a mere fraction of a second in time.  I could easily have been one of those who lies beneath the rubble.  As could many people I know and some I love.   It nearly was!

One of the problems with television, as I have commented before, is that it anaesthetises us.  We are taken right into war zones whilst the bullets and bombs are whizzing and falling.  We are taken into the 9/11s as the fires rage.  We are taken into the horrors of the genocide of Rwanda and the Congo.  We are in the midst of the horrors of Christchurch and, for once, for us in New Zealand it is personal.  Very personal.

But the television and radio views are brought to us by people we don't know personally.

The photos, the words and the emotions on Fiona's blog are, to me, personal because Fiona is a real person who is part of my Blog world and also part of my Facebook world.  So when I see her pictures and read her words I am seeing and reading things which are real and believable and which have no anaesthetic qualities.

Paul Holmes is a New Zealand broadcaster.  I have to admit that I have no liking for him.  He is, however, the consummate wordsmith.  Yesterday in the New Zealand Herald he published the following letter:

Dear Christchurch,

I'm writing to you as an Aucklander, to my Christchurch cousins and brother and sister Kiwis. And I just want you to know how much we're all thinking of you and how much we love you and how much we feel for you in these impossible days.

Your city is on its knees. Our eyes fill with tears at the sight of it. We watch the TV and listen to the radio all day and we hear your emptiness, your loss, your dismay, your shock, your disbelief. We see that ubiquitous bloody silt from the liquefaction, that weird up-thrust of clag that fills your back yards and covers your roads and buries your cars.

We look at you and we look at it all and we know what it means. When we hear that the CBD will be closed for weeks, we know what that means for business. We know what it means for your kids, for their state of mind, for their health, for their next pair of new shoes with winter coming.

We know.

So many of you are involved in the tourism business. We know what those pictures going round the world will do for tourism. We know what it's going to do for the insurance premiums. We know some of you, after this, won't be able to afford insurance.

And we know what your cathedral means to you. I heard someone say the other day on television that the cathedral is a Christchurch icon. No. It's a New Zealand icon. All our lives we've had the Christchurch Cathedral.

I know you think we Aucklanders are up ourselves. I know you bang on about bloody Aucklanders. But really, we're just the same as you. We're Kiwis, before we're anything else. We're strugglers, like you. We get up and go to work and do the best for our kids, just like you. We help our neighbours, just like you, and we've watched you helping each other this week and we've all been deeply moved. We just want to walk up to the television screen and hug you and hold you.

Of course, that is something in itself - we've been able to watch what's been going on. So many of you in Christchurch, lacking electricity, haven't been able to see television or listen to the radio or plug your computer in or charge your cellphones. And you may have loved ones missing as well and heaven knows how you're getting your information and how lonely and isolated you must feel. I hope you have someone to put an arm around you.

John Key was right this week. No act of kindness is too small. That was very homespun of him, wasn't it? That's why I suppose he's so good when this stuff happens.

And I know from September, when I went down for a look, that television might show the bricks lying in the street and the great crumpled buildings in their hideous forms. What it doesn't show is the minute damage, the cracked floors, the broken pipes, the destruction of so much of everything you've built and so much of what you hold dear.

Anyway, the TV coverage has been very compassionate, very graphic, very real and wall to wall. I must say how well I think TV3 did on the first day. Hillary Barry had just the right tone. Then I flicked on Sky News. There was Hillary across Australasia. Then I flicked on CNN. There was Hillary, right around the world.

The most vivid report, and one of the briefest on the first night, was from my former colleague John Sellwood in Lyttelton. He painted a brilliant word picture of the destruction down the main street of the town. It was a lesson in voice reporting. It was passionate but precise and you could hear all the shock of the day in his voice.

On Wednesday, at Hawkes Bay Airport on my way to Auckland, there was a flight due out to Christchurch. In the packed Koru Club every eye was on the television screen. I spoke with Stu, who just wanted to get home to Christchurch. He talked to his wife on Tuesday morning, an hour and a half before the earthquake. She was heading in to Cashel Mall to get her hair done. Cashel Mall was pummelled, of course.

Stu couldn't get hold of her all day. After the quake she and others were trapped in the mall. When they got out, it took Stu's wife three hours to walk home. Stu finally got through to her about 6 on Tuesday night. He said he'd just been through the worst day and night he'd ever had.

Then, just before I got on the plane, I spoke to a woman who works in Lyttelton. She told me that on Tuesday, about lunchtime, her staff ran her to the airport. By the time she landed in Napier, Christchurch was in ruins. She told me that if she hadn't taken that flight, she would have been killed. She has a desk right next to a great brick wall. The entire wall fell across the desk.

What we're seeing this week, Christchurch, is the way you carry on. That's one of the qualities we love about you. You keep going. Everything you rebuilt after last September has been ripped up and torn apart again and you keep going, and we cheer for you and we cry for your pain and heartbreak.

And as each day has gone by this week, we've seen more and more clearly the enormity of the human and infrastructural destruction.

You've got the right man as your mayor, though. Bob Parker is a face and a voice of competence and reassurance. On Wednesday night, I worried about him, so tired and careworn did he look, and I wished he'd simply head home and get some sleep. But there he was on Thursday, fresh as a daisy, the world's media hanging on his every word, talking up the city he loves, willing you to survive.

Anyway, I just wanted you to know how much we're all thinking of you and watching you and praying for you and hoping for the very best for you in your dark hour of worry, longing and sorrow.

Sincerely,

Paul

Whatever views I may have of Paul, his words brought tears to my eyes.  If I had been born or brought up a New Zealander I would like to think that I had been blessed with the ability to craft those words and bring forth the emotions they evoke. 

As it is all I can do is feel helpless and realise just how lucky I am.

The Morning After

It's 6am.  At midnight last night I received a text from Christchurch and my friend there and she's ok.  Thankfully she was not in central Christchurch and is staying in part of Christchurch where I have acquaintances with whom I've stayed when I have been there.  So I slept albeit fitfully. I woke occasionally with the horror still in my mind.  This morning the television is back on and the media are now beginning to get to that stage when they have to fill every minute.  This leads to questions such as "What do you think the final death toll may be?"  As the Mayor said questions like that apart from seeking totally speculative and unavailable information verge on the tasteless at this stage.

I'm out today at 8am.  I'm glad because I would be unable not to watch the television or at least keep it on.  As it is some of the questions the media are asking of the people who are trying to effect rescues are just infuriatingly inane.  Questions like "It's getting light now.  Will that help you?"  Pardon.  Did he really ask that?

Christchurch Earthquake

Just after 1400 hrs today I received a text from a friend who is visiting Christchurch to say that there had been another large earthquake in the City.   It immediately became obvious that the quake was significantly more serious than the larger quake last September which was further away from Christchurch, much deeper and, most importantly, instead of being in the middle of the night when CBD (Central Business District = City Centre) was empty it happened just before 1pm when the buildings and streets were full.  Communication with the City had been temporarily cut off when power and telecommunications lines were disrupted or destroyed.  It took a short while for the television and radio networks (which were themselves damaged) to get up and running with their independent satellite equipment.

Reference Number	3468575[View event in Google Maps]
Universal Time	February 21 2011 at 23:51
NZ Daylight Time	Tuesday, February 22 2011 at 12:51 pm
Latitude, Longitude	43.60°S, 172.71°E
Focal Depth	5 km
Richter magnitude	6.3
Region	Canterbury
Location	Within 5 km of Lyttelton Within 5 km of Diamond Harbour 10 km south-east of Christchurch

Living in New Zealand one is constantly aware of earthquakes which, generally speaking, do little serious damage.   If one lives in Napier the effect of the 1931 earthquake which destroyed the City with huge loss of life and very significant geological effect in the area one is even more aware of what can happen.

However I cannot explain the feelings of anxiety knowing that someone you know and care about is involved even when you know that they survived the initial quake unscathed.  I cannot even begin to imagine how people with relatives and friends who are missing are feeling at this time.  At the time I'm writing this 65 have been confirmed dead but it is expected that that number will rise.

A State of Emergency has been declared.

The television and radio have been on the air with updating news since the quake.  The friend who texted had no idea of the seriousness at the time because they had no power and therefore no TV or radio.   See TV NZ.  

Canterbury Earthquakes

On the 4th September I was in the middle of rural France when I learned via the internet of the huge earthquake near Christchurch in New Zealand's South Island.  As readers of this blog will know Napier was devastated by an earthquake in 1931 and I was therefore very aware of the implications for the people of the area.  Since then there have been around 4000 aftershocks and today the centre of Christchurch was hit by more quakes right under the CBG (Central Business District) and very shallow.  There was more damage to buildings and some that had just survived the Big One on 4 September may now have had their fates sealed. (Photo from TVNZ taken by Dean Jones).

Fi at Four Paws and Whiskers lives in Christchurch and her blog gives her readers a feeling of what it's been like to live through it all.