New Zealand Earthquake Follow Up...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So, I finally heard from my friends in New South Brighton, Christchurch.
They really have had some hard times and issues.

Not being able to reach them for weeks, I called the brother in Germany and he said he had heard they were OK but had left town a day or so after the earthquake.

So, in conversation yesterday:
They had no water, sewage, electricity or phone until just recently. Even now, they have to boil all the water, due to sewage backup in water system.
Their house is still standing, with lots of cracks and rips, but much of the contents were shattered and broken beyond repair.
One odd thing - in their kitchen they have glasses in the top cabinets and silverware in drawers below. Later they found all of the broken glasses from above, in the drawers below! (It seems everything opened, glasses fell into the drawers below, then then the drawers closed back again!)

Husband was at work, on third floor - quickly got under his desk. Then he fled the building, leaving behind his wallet with credit cards and money and also his car keys. Finally got home (bridges and roads out) and he and his wife, his son and grandkids all went out of town for a few weeks.

Still lots of aftershocks, still lots of damage, businesses still closed, people out of work, repairs slow to be completed - the usual after-effects of an earthquake. I lived for many years in California, so know how it goes.

At any rate, they are physically fine but might leave the country for a few months and then return when things have calmed down. They figure they could sublet the house for the short term, even as-is, due to so many people unable to return to their own homes and needing a place to stay.

Glad my friends came out pretty well, but just wondering how everyone else is doing in NZ?

2

I’ll leave the Christchurch stuff to the people living there.

We’re in Napier, different island no physical effects from the quake.

There are several hundred (last I heard 600-700 expected) ‘respite’ visitors in town. These arepeople who have been flown up from Chch at the cost of our local councils (Napier & Hastings) and are staying either with local families or have been given use of homes for a week to a month.

These respite breaks are going on all over the country with people offering their homes or a room in their home for free. This is just to give families and individuals a break from the aftershocks and dealing with the quake damage.

There are many local programmes set up to support these respite visitors (not victims) that my work is involved with in the background.

Fundraising goes on at many levels, from donation lines still being open through Red Cross, down to my kid’s school putting on a quickfire fundraising fair last week. There’s many events and efforts in between - comedians, musicians etc to knitting scarves that will be onsold through chainstores and those rubber bracelets in Cantabury colours (red and black).

Chch still leads the news many nights, whether it’s new footage or job losses affecting the economy or some progress with the rebuild.

I was watching a doco on New Orleans and the aftermath of Katrina over the weekend and they were making the comparison there that Katrina will take a 20 year recovery and so will Christchurch.

As I said at the beginning, I live in Napier and our thoughts are often with Christchurch and how we know the city will rebuild itself.

3

The Japan earthquake seems to have overshadowed the tragic event in Christchurch. We’re overdue for a really humongous earthquake on the San Andreas fault, and it ain’t gonna be pretty when it happens.

maggenpye, I love Art Deco architecture and wish I had a chance to visit Napier when I was in New Zealand. Here in Santa Barbara, we had our own major earthquake in 1925, and we rebuilt largely in the Spanish Revival style, not unlike Hastings.

4

Leading the news today, the Christchurch Earthquake causing mass job losses.

We still haven’t heard from DaveNZ, who was part of the September quake thread.
Art Deco gets better every year here - we’ve recently added Deco decanted, a mid-winter (July) mini deco festival. The main run lasts over a week now.

My folks were involved in last year’s scare that some houses were built on dump sites from the earthquake - 80 years on and it still has an effect. The scare was nothing much anyway - my folk’s house isn’t on a dump site and there was very little toxic rubbish back in the 30’s. A neighbour of theirs has sinking foundations, not from the earthquake itself, but from a filled in ditch from the swamp that the earthquake drained.

I often walk around Pandora Pond and you can see the odd brick or slab of concrete rising through the mud, that whole area was made from the buldozed remains of the city trucked out to what was then rural no man’s land and is now a nature reserve and popular walking track minutes from the city centre.

5

A huge aftershock just occurred in Christchurch. Didn’t catch the magnitude, but it was pretty freakin’ big.

6

Three aftershocks so far. The linked article gives a good view of the ground liquefaction.

7

Can we get a check-in again from Chch dopers?

Please?

Being aware that power (and water) are out yet again over large parts of the city.

8

Hey still here.

House a bigger mess than either Sept or Feb. Running out of wine glasses and enthusiasim for shoveling liquifaction.

Right now just gutted. My parents in law had just shifted back into their place after making it livable again (in the longer scheme it’s a write off). They’re back to shoveling silt out of the livingroom and I suspect they might just walk away from the house this time.

I’ve got silt and sand in the backyard from liqufaction. Lots of broken glasses and crockery and a living room that literally looks like someone picked it up and gave it a big shake.

After Feb. the adrenaline kicked in. Now I’m just sick of it all. Had enough.

Oh, and no water coming out of the tap now but at least I have power.

9

A shaky night down there, too?

My heart goes out to you and the folks-in-law. PM me your address and I’ll send you down some earthquake proof wineglasses - because that’s just too much!

10

Update: Firefly boxed set squashed by TV falling on it.

RIP both TV and Firefly.

Parents in law can’t even get to their house this morning due to roads being closed.

Cat in his normal post earthquake haunt under the neighbours house.

11

My dad was out walking the dog along the Heathcote River when the second one hit and nearly ended up in it, was literally crawling his way up the bank whilst the water sloshed from side to side and the power poles bent around him.

Mum says for them it was worse than the first one. I suspect part of that is simply the emotional trauma of going through it all again and again.

And to think my husband and I were there at the end of May and we were happily commenting that the aftershocks were so small and it all seemed to be settling down again.

12

Try to stay safe, guys.