Few bldgs had been inspected safe, or not, no red, yellow, or green inspection-stickers were on any buildings yet. Roads had been graded "clean" of rubble, which was heaped on footpaths & roadsides, allowing traffic flow outside the CBD-cordon.
Leah stayed at home, uneasy about trekking quaked streets. I wanted to photo-document damage about the Christchurch I'd known for 15 years since our arrival in NZ, before it disappeared.
For safety, we texted each other throughout, when I changed streets & when Leah heard a broadcast on radio or TV, like people shouldn't use their cell-phones too much, to save cell-phone tower power; or the latest aftershock & its magnitude: "Did you feel that quake?" Me: "No?" Funny, while driving or walking I never felt any aftershocks. A surreal day.
05.09.10. Quake damaged garden wall, Rossall St / Glandovey Rd. Wall would be repaired after 4 weeks. Pointless repairing sooner due to aftershocks. The brick wall would be damaged again by the 22.02.11, M6.3 quake & subsequent quakes. The brick wall would be repaired / rebuilt 3 x
05.09.10. Quake damaged garage by fallen chimney, Straven Rd / Heaton St. 5 months post quake, still no repairs due to slow insurance settlement
05.09.10. Quake damaged chimney, Heaton St
05.09.10. Tarp on quake damaged roof, Heaton St.
Heaton St, Severn St: Christchurch became colourful with plastic-tarps placed on damaged roofs & chimneys. Competing with spring flowers, tarps were colourful: blue, black, grey, green, yellow, orange, red, white... Tarps would stay on roofs, chimneys, walls for months until repairs were done. I snapped damaged roofs & chimneys, a novelty for me.
Within a month EQC would receive claims for 17 000 damaged chimneys (The Press).
05.09.10. Quake damaged chimney & roof, Heaton St
05.09.10. Quake damaged chimney, Heaton St
05.09.10. Quake damaged chimney, Heaton St
05.09.10. Quake damaged chimney, Heaton St
05.09.10. Quake damaged chimney, Heaton St
05.09.10. Quake damaged chimney & roof, Innes Rd / Papanui Rd. The chimney damaged roof was soon patched, but years later the gutter still hung skew. Insurance hassles?
05.09.10. Quake damaged chimney, Severn St
05.09.10. Quake toppled chimney, Severn St
05.09.10. Quake damaged chimney & roof, Severn St
05.09.10. Quake damaged chimney, Severn St
05.09.10. Quake damaged roof, Severn St
05.09.10. Quake damaged chimney & roof, Severn St
05.09.10. Quake damaged chimney, Severn St
05.09.10. Wood braced, quake damaged chimney (soon demolished) Severn St
05.09.10. Quake damaged roof, Westminster St
05.09.10. Quake destroyed chimney, Westminster St
Westminster St, Madras St: I snapped damages: many tarped roofs, broken chimneys, road cracks.
Madras St / Bealey Ave: Three orange, Hi-Vis vested workmen fixed a broken water-pipe in a hole.
05.09.10. Quake damaged house, Madras St
05.09.10. Quake destroyed chimney, Madras St
05.09.10. Steel mesh fence cordon, quake damaged pavement, curb, Madras St. Liquefaction grey silt on pavement
05.09.10. Quake cracked pavement, Madras St
05.09.10. Quake crack across Madras St near Bealey Ave & liquefaction shoving of a concrete manhole about 10 cm above the road surface.
Madras St: A series of 6 concrete manholes were shoved above the road, causing drivers to weave around them for a week, before workmen mounded up the manholes with tarseal, then Madras St became a rollercoaster ride. Despite Council swiftly repairing some roads, for weeks we drove carefully over unrepaired potholes & cracks all over Christchurch. Three weeks post 4 September, Darfield Quake, Luke would break his collarbone skateboarding over an unseen, footpath pothole at night.
05.09.10. Quake damage to curb, drain & road, Madras St / Bealey Ave
05.09.10. Liquefaction damaged Madras St, cracked pavement & crack across road, slumping across road entering Bealey Ave. Repaired within a week. The crossing would again be damaged by the 22.02.11 quake
05.09.10. Orange, Hi-Vis vested workmen repairing quake burst water pipe, Madras St / Bealey Ave. The drain & water pipe would again be damaged by the 22.02.11 quake
05.09.10. Quake toppled garden wall, Bealey Ave
05.09.10. Quake burst water pipe, Packe St / Bealey Ave. Pipe repaired within days, road tarsealed by month end
Bealey Ave, Packe St, Purchas St: Snapped damages: broken garden-walls, flooding, cracked-roads, cracked-footpaths, concrete-curbs pulled from footpaths, liquefaction mud in gutters.
05.09.10. Quake damaged Packe St pavement
05.09.10. Quake cracked Packe St
05.09.10. Liquefaction road slumping & road cracks, Packe St / Purchas St crossing
05.09.10. Liquefaction damaged Purchas St
05.09.10. Liquefaction damaged Packe St / Purchas St crossing
Barbadoes St, Lichfield St, Poplar St: Snapped damages: fallen roof-tiles, brick-walls peeled off houses, shop-awnings collapsed on footpaths, brick-crushed cars.
05.09.10. Quake damaged old brick house wall & chimney, Barbadoes St.
Would old, brick-buildings lose value? Many old, brick-structures were damaged. Old, unreinforced bricks & mortar were not quake-proof.
05.09.10. Quake damaged brick parapet, side wall & chimney, Barbadoes St
05.09.10. Quake damaged shop & collapsed awning, Barbadoes St / Armagh St. Many old shop awnings collapsed onto pavements in older Christchurch
05.09.10. Quake damaged shop, Barbadoes St / Armagh St. Post quake, the shop was fenced off for weeks.
05.09.10. Quake damaged cars, bricks fallen from John Burns Co roof, Lichfield St. The bldg would be demolished post 22.02.11 quake
Barbadoes St: Southbound, by a trashed shop, a footpath advertisement-board:
FISH &
CHIPS
OPEN
Businesses would battle to stay open in the CBD during future quake-years. At the early post-quake stage, outer police-cordons were fluid. I passed DANGER KEEP OUT, white, plastic POLICE-tape at Barbadoes St (no cops around) & trekked down Lichfield St, as I wanted to check the rumour Jake heard, that his old Poplar St flat was destroyed.
Another rumour: Last night we'd heard there was a curfew, but driving along Cashmere Rd below Port Hills, long past curfew time, there was no curfew, as too many cars were driving about. We later heard the curfew was only in the CBD.
05.09.10. Quake damaged John Burns Co, Lichfield St. The bldg would be demolished post 22.02.11 quake
05.09.10. In the cop cordon, taped off Ash street & Poplar Mews (yellow door) were undamaged. A nearby Lichfield St cnr multistorey bldg was quake damaged. Poplar St bldgs would be demolished after serial quake damages, 22.02.11, 13.06.11, 23.12.11
Deserted Madras St / Lichfield St crossing: I asked a cop sitting in a Fulton Hogan truck if I could walk down Madras St to snap Poplar St down Ash St. The cop waved me through. Strange wandering the middle of deserted Madras St, usually three-lane, northbound traffic. I saw cops at distant crossings, thinly spread. More than 24 hours post-quake, NZDF soldiers made a late-entrance. While cops did guard-duties at CBD-crossings, criminals hogged the suburbs.
05.09.10. S view, quake cordoned Madras St to Sugarloaf, Port Hills. Cops at crossings
05.09.10. N view, quake cordoned Madras St to Latimer Sq
05.09.10. Quake damaged brick bldg (old stables) already cleaned up, Madras St / Bedford Row. Couple of days later I walked past again, bldg was fenced off, aftershock rubble on the road. The old stable would be demolished post 22.02.11 & 13.06.11 quake damages. 2018. Concrete, tilt slab flats would be built on site.
05.09.10. Quake rubberneckers in the outer cop cordon, Lichfield St / Madras St crossing.
A State-of-Emergency would evolve the next day for a week & beyond for 10 days, to quell rubberneckers & confront citizens, using fire service, Urban Search And Rescue (USAR), volunteer Civil Defence, cops, NZDF soldiers, navy personnel, while inspectors checked buildings, grading them safe or unsafe with green, yellow, red stickers.
05.09.10. Rubberneckers viewing undamaged Inland Revenue building, Cashel St / Madras St at cops' quake cordon
05.09.10. Quake damaged Provincial Hotel, Barbadoes St / Cashel St. Demolished post 22.02.11 quake
05.09.10. Quake damaged gable, Provincial Hotel, Barbadoes St / Cashel St. Demolished post 22.02.11 quake
Barbadoes St / Cashel St: Like Provincial Hotel, many brick or stone gables on old buildings were snapped off by the quake, leaving rubble on footpaths & roads.
05.09.10. Quake damaged Provincial Hotel, Cashel St / Barbadoes St. Demolished post 22.02.11 quake
05.09.10. Quake damaged gable, Provincial Hotel, Cashel St / Barbadoes St. Demolished post 22.02.11 quake
Within a month, Provincial Hotel would be scaffolded, a Titan crane would remove gables, placed on the footpath, the roof repaired. Provincial Hotel would be demolished post 22 February 2011 quake.
Barbadoes St / St Asaph St: Old, brick, Community of the Sacred Name Convent damage: toppled-chimneys, roof-damage. The Convent would be serial-quake damaged, demolished post 13 June 2011 quake.
05.09.10. Quake damaged old, brick Community of the Sacred Name, Anglican Convent, Barbadoes St / St Asaph St. Bldg was more damaged by Boxing day aftershocks. Demolished post 13.06.11 quake
05.09.10. Quake damaged old, brick Community of the Sacred Name, Anglican Convent, Barbadoes Street / St Asaph St. Demolished post 13.06.11 quake
05.09.10. Quake damaged chimney, Barbadoes St / St Asaph St. Demolished post 13.06.11 quake
05.09.10. Quake damaged chimney & roof, Barbadoes St / St Asaph St. Bldg was more damaged by Boxing Day Quakes. Demolished post 13.06.11 quake
Diagonally opposite corner, another building was damaged: collapsed roof. Demolished within a week, demolition-debris lay on-site for months. Next door, damaged-building would be demolished post 26 December 2010 quake.
05.09.10. Quake destroyed bldg (soon demolished) St Asaph St / Barbadoes St
05.09.10. Quake destroyed bldg (soon demolished) St Asaph St / Barbadoes St
05.09.10. Quake destroyed bldg (soon demolished) St Asaph St / Barbadoes St
05.09.10. Quake destroyed bldg (soon demolished) St Asaph St / Barbadoes St
05.09.10. Back of quake destroyed bldg (soon demolished) St Asaph St / Barbadoes St
05.09.10. Front of quake destroyed bldg (soon demolished) Barbadoes St / St Asaph St
05.09.10. Barbadoes St, N view, quake damaged brick bldgs, St Asaph St crossing. The bldgs would be demolished
12.09.10. Quake destroyed bldg demolished within a week, Barbadoes St / St Asaph St. Demolition debris lay at the cnr for weeks after the quake. Green bldg would be demolished after Boxing Day aftershocks
Barbadoes St: Damaged Music Centre next to Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament: roof-damaged, gables-toppled, rubbled-carpark. 2009. Luke did his Royal Schools of Music theory exam & Drum Kit exam there. After more damages the Music Centre would be demolished post 13 June 2011 quake. For brevity I would use the RC Cathedral's other name: Christchurch Basilica.
05.09.10. Quake damaged Music Centre, Barbadoes St, where my son did his Royal Schools of Music theory exam & Trinity College London Drum Kit exam in 2009. Bldg was more damaged by Boxing Day aftershocks & 2011 quakes. Demolished post 13.06.11 quake
05.09.10. Quake rubble, Music Centre entrance, Barbadoes St. Bldg was more damaged by Boxing Day aftershocks & 2011 quakes. Demolished post 13.06.11 quake
05.09.10. Quake damaged gable, Music Centre, Barbadoes St. More damaged by Boxing Day aftershocks & 2011 quakes. Demolished post 13.06.11 quake
05.09.10. Another quake damaged gable, Music Centre, Barbadoes St. Demolished post 13.06.11 quake
05.09.10. Quake damaged upper roof by weeping elm, Music Centre, Barbadoes St. More damaged by Boxing Day aftershocks & 2011 quakes. Demolished post 13.06.11 quake
05.09.10. Quake damaged lower roof by weeping elm, Music Centre, Barbadoes St. Demolished post 13.06.11 quake
05.09.10. Quake damaged turret roof by weeping elm, Music Centre, Barbadoes St. Demolished post 13.06.11 quake
05.09.10. Quake damaged gable, Music Centre, Barbadoes Street. Demolished post 13.06.11 quake
05.09.10. Quake damaged chimneys (soon demolished) Fitzgerald Ave / Bealey Ave
London St: Checked Leah's Jean Seabrook Memorial School, (the only school for dyslexics in NZ then) undamaged, a new, 2 storey school. We heard on the news that Christchurch schools would be closed the following week.
Stanmore Rd: Near Leah's school across Richmond Village Green, I watched an Indian man wearing a red turban cajoling customers into his restaurant with free snacks, as next door Sun Ning Chinese Meals building was damaged, a 2 storey, brick-wall threatening collapse onto his Indian Restaurant. No customers.
From school, Friday 29 October 2010, Leah would see Sun Ning building demolished. Sun Ning would be rebuilt.
05.09.10. Quaked damaged Sun Ning Chinese Meals, Stanmore Rd. Demolished 29.10.10, state of emergency, then rebuilt
Stanmore Rd: Richmond Methodist Church hall damage: parapet bricks toppled into the garden. Shocking for Leah, as her school used the church hall. After serial-quake damages, the church would be demolished post 13 June 2011 Quake.
05.09.10. Quake damaged Richmond Methodist Church hall, Stanmore Rd. Shocking as the wife's school used the church hall, which would be demolished post 13.06.11 quake
05.09.10. Close up, quake damaged Richmond Methodist Church hall, Stanmore Rd. The church hall would be demolished post 13.06.11 quake
Top of Stanmore Rd: At a plastic-tape-cordon, no cops in sight, a Civil Defence volunteer, wearing an orange, Hi-Vis vest, directed traffic into a detour. He tried turning pedestrians away from the cordon. Two girls drove up, remonstrated with him, lifted cordon-tapes & drove through. What right did he have to deny traumatised people? Waving my camera, I smiled, walked through.
Beyond cordon-tapes more Stanmore Rd buildings were damaged, like Henry Africa's Restaurant: roof damage, bricks peeled off side-walls, debris on footpath. Henry Africa's Restaurant would soon be demolished.
05.09.10. Quake damaged bldgs, Stanmore Rd. Henry Africa's Restaurant right would be demolished
05.09.10. Quake damaged Henry Africa's Restaurant, brick parapet & roof (soon demolished) Stanmore Rd
05.09.10. Quake damaged cnr, Henry Africa's Restaurant (soon demolished) Stanmore Rd
05.09.10. Quake damaged side of Henry Africa's Restaurant (soon demolished) Stanmore Rd
05.09.10. Quake damaged shop & white, plastic cordon tape, DANGER KEEP OUT, Stanmore Rd
Barbadoes St / Edgeware Rd: Shops destroyed, brick-facade peeled off, brick-rubble on footpath. Telecom cubicle, surrounded by fallen- bricks & roof-debris, the glass cubicle unscathed. Building would soon be demolished, shops rebuilt.
05.09.10. Quake damaged chimney, Barbadoes St
05.09.10. Quake damaged wall fell into neighbour's garden, Barbadoes St. Six weeks later the wall was still covered by a blue tarp
05.09.10. Quake damaged brick bldg front, Barbadoes St
05.09.10. Quake damaged brick bldg side, Barbadoes St
05.09.10. Quake flung bricks on stream bank, Barbadoes St
05.09.10. Quake destroyed shops (soon demolished & rebuilt) Barbadoes St / Edgeware Rd
05.09.10. Quake destroyed shops (soon demolished & rebuilt) Barbadoes St / Edgeware Rd
05.09.10. Quake destroyed shops (soon demolished & rebuilt) Barbadoes St / Edgeware Rd
05.09.10. Quake destroyed shops (soon demolished & rebuilt) Barbadoes St / Edgeware Rd
05.09.10. Quake rubble before Barbadoes St shops (soon demolished & rebuilt) by Edgeware Rd crossing
05.09.10. Quake destroyed fish & chips & hamburger shop (soon demolished & rebuilt) Barbadoes St
05.09.10. Quake destroyed shops (soon demolished & rebuilt) Barbadoes St
05.09.10. Quake destroyed Redken (soon demolished & rebuilt) Barbadoes St
05.09.10. Quake destroyed shops (soon demolished & rebuilt) Barbadoes St
05.09.10. Quake destroyed shops (soon demolished & rebuilt) Edgeware Rd / Barbadoes St
05.09.10. No wonder telephone lines were jammed after Christchurch quake. Quake damaged shop (soon demolished & rebuilt) Edgeware Rd / Barbadoes St
Several people tried phoning us. Unsuccessful. We found Facebook best for communications, especially overseas.
05.09.10. Quake destroyed bldg (soon demolished & rebuilt) Edgeware Rd / Barbadoes St
05.09.10. Bricks from a damaged house quake flung into a neighbour's driveway, Edgeware Rd
05.09.10. Quake destroyed brick chimney, Edgeware Rd
05.09.10. Quake damaged Hairdressing, Barbadoes St
05.09.10. Quake destroyed Restoration (soon demolished & rebuilt) Edgeware Rd / Barbadoes St
05.09.10. Quake destroyed Restoration (soon demolished & rebuilt) Barbadoes St / Edgeware Rd
05.09.10. Quake destroyed Restoration (soon demolished & rebuilt) Barbadoes St / Edgeware Rd
05.09.10. Quake destroyed Restoration (soon demolished & rebuilt) Barbadoes St / Edgeware Rd
Opposite corner Barbadoes St / Edgeware Rd: Restoration shop trashed: side brick-walls peeled off. Corner-buildings were often damaged, already weakened by traffic-vibrations for years. Restoration would soon be demolished. Within 6 weeks new foundations would be laid, Restoration rebuilt.
05.09.10. Quake toppled chimney, Innes Rd
Clouds vanished, late afternoon sun shone in blue sky, so I drove home, picked up my family & rubbernecked damages along Barbadoes St again. My morning's snapping was uncrowded, by afternoon word had spread, Barbadoes St teemed with rubberneckers.
Oxford Tce: Where Jake had flatted in an old house, Avon Loop. If he'd stayed there during the quake, he would've been flooded by grey quakemire. Lateral-spreading of Avon River bank caused the road to crack. Road-cracks were so big, it was easy to plunge our limbs deep into cracks, fun fooling around in quake-cracks. Little did we know their dangers in future quakes.
05.09.10. Checking a quake crack by a fire engine, Oxford Tce
05.09.10. Quake flooding by Avon River, Oxford Tce
05.09.10. Quake cracked Oxford Tce & white, plastic, cordon tape
05.09.10. Arm in a quake crack, Oxford Tce
05.09.10. Leg in a quake crack, Oxford Tce
05.09.10. Foot in a quake crack, Oxford Tce
05.09.10. Rental house in grey liquefaction mud, Oxford Tce. The house would be red zoned & demolished
Soon student-gangs would roam Christchurch streets, shovelling grey quakemire into roadside heaps. Thousands of silt-heaps on roadsides, all over Christchurch, became a feature of liquefaction-damaged zones, like Avonside, Dallington, Bexley, Halswell.
05.09.10. Seated in a quake crack, Oxford Tce
05.09.10. Heaps of shovelled, grey liquefaction silt, Oxford Tce
Over the next 11 days, I'd see 1 000s of quakemire heaps shovelled from roads, footpaths, gardens, houses. Student leader, Sam Johnson Facebook- organized student-gang, silt-diggers throughout Christchurch. PM Key was so impressed, he said Johnson should enter politics!
05.09.10. Quake crack, Oxford Tce, slumping Avon River bank, due to lateral spreading
Haiti's January 2010 quake: M7.0, 250 000 dead. Darfield quake, 4 September 2010: M7.1, no dead. Had Darfield Quake struck at 16.35, instead of 4.35, I'd've been looking for bodies instead of snapping.
05.09.10. Quake crack across Oxford Tce by Avon River
Given Christchurch's widespread destruction, I would snap for days. My Nikon Coolpix wasn't fancy with huge lens. I snapped damages, close & dirty. Extremely close.
What about brick-dust & asbestos-dust hazards from destroyed chimneys? I thought if an aftershock caught me & things started falling, I'd go for the nearest doorway & cover my head. Middle of a street was unsafe, as bricks & stones flew from breaking buildings. Never mind brick-facades collapsing, like in Barbadoes St.
*Trekked Heaton St, Severn St, Westminster St, Madras St, Bealey Ave, Packe St, Purchas St, Barbadoes St, Lichfield St, Cashel St, Stanmore Rd, Edgeware Rd, Innes Rd, Oxford Tce. 117 snaps.
Facebook:
@Tracey. Hectic last few hours. 5 September 4.33am.
@Tracey. Not much sleep. Lots of damage in random areas, thousands of houses look OK. Many garden-fences broken, chimneys-cracked, toppled. Some roofs damaged. Older brick-buildings near rivers, damaged, roads-cracked, slumped, flood-damage near rivers too. End of the day, some traffic- lights still not working, power & water, mostly reconnected. Fire-engines, cops, power linesmen roaming. Council roadblocks in dodgy areas too, like Bromley sewage-works near Avon / Heathcote Estuary. Civil Defence refuges operating. 5 September 5.14am.
Night after the quake. Adrenalin still going. Leah & Luke, sleeping OK. Destruction images in my mind kept me awake. Christchurch authorities condemn crappy, old brick-buildings for demolition, will rebuild safer buildings.
Damage seen yesterday: mainly old, brick-buildings, huge cracks, broken-glass, fallen-roofs, bricks popped off (often outer brick-walls, steel- ties useless). Rubble-heaps all over Christchurch after clean-up of properties, pavements, roads.
Heathcote River, Avon River: turbid, full. Silt & flood-damages on river-roads, some distance from rivers. Pressures of river-water & earthquake-forced-water into jelly-like swamp-soil, squeezing water & silt up in odd places like low-lying roads & gardens. Saw road- drains sucking tons of water near rivers during the late afternoon. 5 September 6.27am.
@Sun. Trust you & family survived the quake OK. Our lives are defined: before & after the quake, we were there. 7 September 10.57am.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
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