Back on September 4, 2010 a powerful earthquake shook the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. Our friend, Pat Boland wrote about the experience in two posts soon after (search "earthquake" to see these).
On February 12th, 2011 we arrived in Christchurch. We had a lovely ten days to enjoy this beautiful city with its rich collection of heritage buildings. As we explored the neighborhoods, studying the urban form, we noticed that many buildings were still standing but enclosed by fences, awaiting demolition or refurbishment as the work of earthquake recovery continued.
Then, on February 22, 12:51 PM local time, the City Centre of Christchurch was struck by another violent earthquake!
We were in our hostel, Old Country House, at that moment. There was a deep rumble and the building starting shaking quite violently from side to side. We just dropped to the floor and clung to the walls to keep from falling. As the shaking subsided we hurried outside to find all our housemates huddled together, many quite disturbed, waiting for what might happen next. Fortunately no one was hurt. A number of aftershocks followed, one quite violent, but our hostel held up with virtually no damage.
We survived the next couple of days fairly well, considering. We had to boil the water we could find and cook our food on the BBQ since there was no electric power and no running water, but we were uninjured and had a safe place to be with a stable roof over our heads. Many in the city were not so fortunate.
The power was restored after a day and a half so we could cook more easily but no water came from the taps until late on the 24th and it needed to be boiled for safe drinking. On the second day, we volunteered to be part of the cleanup crew for Andy's house. He's the owner of the Old Country House, our hostel-haven, but his house in Sumner received a bad shaking and everything in the kitchen was smashed on the floor. As a reward for our help, he hooked up a generator and connected the Wifi so we could send a message to a few folks to say "We're safe!".
We walked around our neighborhood to see what had happened nearby. We'll post some pictures on Flickr when we have a moment.
We also made friends with many of our housemates - nothing like sharing a disaster to bring folks together! When the power came back, Andy hooked up the Wifi so we could make a few calls to cancel reservations for places we were no longer able to travel to and to start making a Plan B.
On February 25th (the 3rd day after the quake), we boarded a bus and traveled south to Dunedin, 400 km south, where all was normal.It was a great relief to be away from all the destruction. We feel apologetic and sad about leaving Christchurch while so many are left there, but because we felt that we couldn't help, it would be better to leave and be two less visitors that would need food and possible assistance.
No doubt you have all heard the news and seen the pictures of destruction and death, rescues and debris, roadblocks and mud floods, rock slides and road cracks. To add a bit of perspective, Christchurch is a very, very badly wounded city but much of it, especially the western and northern parts are fairly normal, almost unscathed. Our friends, Bob and Pat and their family are safe and unharmed, having suffered a loss of windows in their lovely cliff side home.
The brave folks of Christchurch must now battle on, facing the continuing recovery and rebuilding process with the addition of recovery from the grief of losing loved ones and friends. Our hearts are with them. Having lived through the earthquake experience and survived unharmed, we understand more deeply the physical and emotional stresses and pain that such an experience imposes on people.
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