Wairakei Rd near our Burnside rental: Grey liquefaction mud / sewage mix caused brown, roadside ponding. Brick, garden wall fallen onto pavement near Ilam Rd cnr. Cyclists & road traffic fled CBD to suburbs.
Heaton St: Grey liquefaction mud. Muddy driveways, grey water pouring onto road. Traffic jam. Parents fetched kids from school.
Innes Rd: Grey liquefaction mud. Ponding water poured into roadside, steel grilled drains. Cracked road, muddy driveways.
Severn St: Completely liquefactioned. Quakemire everywhere: grey, liquefaction mud boils oozed across road from pavements. Brick gate posts fallen.
Westminster St: Huge grey, liquefaction mud boils oozed across road. Grey liquefaction water fountained out of road drains. Sewage / liquefaction water ponded roadsides.
Madras St: Massive quakemire boils. Sinkholes. Brown sewage ponding across the road. Fleeing Christchurch CBD, pedestrians waded across mud & sewage.
Bealey Ave: Traffic lights kaput. EQC man, wearing yellow, Hi-Vis vest directed traffic, Madras St / Bealey Ave . (Some EQC men were ex cops). Pedestrians, incl tourists with roller suitcases, fled CBD. Cop car fled CBD up Madras St. Bealey Ave gridlocked. Grey, liquefaction mud boils, brown sewage puddles roadside. Packe St junction, water main flooded. By a sinkhole, my car was jolted by a big aftershock. Terrified, Asian lady faces in car next to me. Abandoned my car, Bealey Ave / Whitmore St / Fitzgerald Ave junction. Beginnings of cordon at junction: Parked cop car, cop, 3 Hi-Vis vested, CD men directed traffic & arranged the orange, plastic, road cone cordon, due to collapsed Fitzgerald Ave, N bound road by Avon River bank.
London St: Walked grey, quakemired street to Leah's school. Car trapped in grey mud. Brick parapet ripped off a house side wall. Fearful faces: Home owners, families stood in liquefactioned gardens & on quakemired pavements for safety. Brick wall peeled off Richmond Working Mens Club. Rubble by a flooded, mud-stuck car.
London St, Jean Seabrook Memorial School: Grey liquefaction flooded pavement, deep, grey, liquefaction pond by front gate. I waded through. Empty plot next door, completely flooded, grey liquefaction water. Big, grey, quakemire boils on pavement, in school carpark, in playground. Oozing, grey, mud boils grew before our eyes. Staff in liquefactioned carpark waited for parents to fetch kids. Leah's car becoming trapped in mud, I reversed it off. Jake had already trekked quakemired streets from quake damaged, Under The Red Verandah restaurant, Worcester St, to Leah's school to tell her he was OK.
High school teachers were on strike, so high school students were loose in Christchurch. Primary school teachers dealt with distraught kids, parents, public during quake & aftershocks. I trekked nearby quaked streets:
Pavitt St: Grey quakemire, flooded. Gardens, grey quakemired, flooded. Drain, steel grille displaced at concrete curb. Grey liquefaction boils, flooding on Village Green. Big road crack near Richmond School. Playground, grey quakemired, flooded.
Alexandra St: Grey quakemire, flooded. Driveways, gardens, grey quakemired, flooded. Concrete curb snapped. House chimneys toppled. Concrete, garden wall toppled. Cars parked in raw sewage.
Fitzgerald Ave: Only S bound lane operating, due to N bound lane collapse. A cyclist fled CBD. Pedestrians fled CBD on liquefaction muddied, flooded pavements. 2 red buses NOT ON SERVICE parked roadside. We didn't know then that 8 people were killed by brick bldgs collapsing on a red bus, Colombo St.
22.02.11. Liquefaction damaged Wairakei Rd, nr Ilam Rd cnr. Cyclist fleeing CBD
22.02.11. Fallen brick wall on Wairakei Rd pavement, nr Ilam Rd cnr
22.02.11. Liquefactioned Heaton St, parents fetching kids from quake closed school
22.02.11. Liquefactioned Innes Rd
22.02.11. Liquefactioned Innes Rd / Severn St
22.02.11. Liquefactioned Severn St
22.02.11. Liquefactioned Severn St / Westminster St
22.02.11. Liquefactioned, flooded, sinkholed Madras St between Westminster St & Bealey Ave crossings. Motorists fleeing CBD, driving over liquefaction silt. Red car parked in raw sewage
22.02.11. Pedestrians fleeing CBD in raw sewage & liquefaction silt, Madras St.
22.02.11. Yellow, Hi-Vis vested, EQC man directing gridlocked traffic, Bealey Ave / Madras St. Traffic lights kaput. Some EQC assessors were ex cops
22.02.11. Gridlocked traffic, texting girl, quake damaged Bealey Ave / Madras St. Texting was the only reliable contact the first few hours post quake. Email & landlines were jammed.
22.02.22. Cop, tourists, business people fleeing quake trashed CBD, Bealey Ave / Madras St. Any vehicle traffic on quaked roads trashed unstable roads more
22.02.11. Gridlocked traffic while aftershocks jolted cars, Bealey Ave
22.02.11. People outside bldgs, safest place, while aftershocks continued, Bealey Ave
22.02.11. Liquefactioned Whitmore St / Bealey Ave / Fitzgerald Ave / London St crossing & beginnings of a orange, plastic, road cone cordon by Fitzgerald Ave. Pedestrians fleeing the CBD. In later national state of emergency days, cops & NZDF soldiers, incl an olive LAV, checkpointed the crossing
22.02.11. Liquefactioned Seabrook McKenzie Centre, London St. SMcKC would be liquefactioned in the June 13 quake too
22.02.11. Staff, parents, Seabrook McKenzie Centre, London St. Kindy & Primary school teachers in Christchurch were heroes, waiting for hours for kids to be picked up by parents. Shame on high school teachers that quake day, on pay strike, 1 000s of high school kids let loose in quaked Christchurch
22.02.11. Liquefactioned, flooded Pavitt St
22.02.11. Quake spalled, concrete curb, Alexandra St
22.02.11. Liquefactioned, flooded Alexandra St
Note: My unedited, quake snaps were taken live, during the first 4 hours after the initial shock of the Feb 22 Killer Quake, during many powerful aftershocks, which jolted, shook my car, while I drove from Burnside to Richmond return, 20km.
22.02.11. Liquefactioned, flooded Alexandra St
London St: At Leah's school, snaps were taken live while aftershocks jolted, shook us while we stood in the school carpark, waiting for parents to fetch school kids, & while trekking Richmond. Quakemire & grey water "boiled," bubbled, oozed from the soil, while quake areas flooded, causing mud volcanoes & mud boils, all over Christchurch.
22.02.11. S bound, liquefactioned Fitzgerald Ave, already cordoned, nr Bealey Ave crossing. Bus was stopped, as collapsed N bound Fitzgerald Ave by Avon Loop was down the road
Buses stopped all over Christchurch during the quake. Luke had to abandon a quake jolted bus on Moorhouse Ave, while the quake continued, CBD too dangerous. Skateboarding along Moorhouse Ave, Luke was one of the first to see collapsed towers of the RC Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Barbadoes St. Fluke during aftershocks: Luke was picked up by his girlfriend's dad on Moorhouse Ave. So Luke, didn't return home through the quake trashed CBD, during aftershocks. Quaked roads: normal 20 min trip to South New Brighton took 4 hours! It would take another 3 days for Luke to to return home to Burnside, via his girlfriend's quake trashed home, South New Brighton.
22.02.11. Liquefactioned, flooded Fitzgerald Ave, nr Bealey Ave crossing. Cyclist fleeing CBD on wrong side of Fitzgerald Ave, as the opp side had collapsed by Avon River bend
Grey water in my snaps wasn't rain water after a rain storm, it was underground water forced up above the ground surface during quake liquefaction, which continued for hours after the quake during aftershocks, where intense shaking compacted soil particles, forcing saturated ground water above the soil surface with destructive force. Thousands of tons of underground silt was forced above ground during liquefaction, causing great destruction to infrastructure, roads, bldgs. It took Christchurch diggers months to remove quakemire from roads & bldgs. When windy, quakemire dust in streets became a health hazard. People wore masks against liquefaction dust on nor'wester days. After rains, liquefaction silt became mud in the streets again. I often used the word quakemire instead of liquefaction mud.
22.02.11. Cop car & 3 Hi-Vis vested, Civil Defence blokes. Bealey Ave / Fitzgerald Ave while aftershocks continued. Beginnings of a state of emergency cordon where Fitzgerald Ave would be closed for weeks
Madras St / Cashel St, CTV multi-storey: While waiting at Leah's London St school we smelt burning in the air. Later that quake afternoon we learnt CTV had collapsed & burned, people trapped inside. Couple of weeks later, TV reported that some human remains found at the CTV collapse may never be identified. Of the 115 persons killed by the CTV collapse, 4 were never identified in CTV rubble, fire so intense, their DNA wasn't found. A memorial garden at Avonhead Cemetery would be made for CTV unfound dead & missing.
I saw no new structural cordons that quake day, the quake so devastating, authorities had no time to cordon quake trashed bldgs yet. People were being dug out of rubble & transported to hospital. Crushed corpses found.
*Trekked Wairakei Rd, Heaton St, Innes Rd, Severn St, Westminster St, Madras St, Bealey Ave, London St, Whitmore St, Fitzgerald Ave, Pavitt St, Alexandra St. 134 snaps.
Facebook:
Like post Sept 4 Darfield Quake, Facebook was the only medium I could message family & friends. Our outbox had been down for months. Phone lines were jammed or down post Feb 22 Killer Quake.
@Alan, Maureen. All OK. I think you guys know more about the quake than us here, due to power, phone, TV cuts for some hours. Drove to Leah's school an hour post quake, after checking our house, tidying up mess. Roads I saw were cracked, bumpy, oozing water, liquefaction mud.
Jake's restaurant bldg collapsed while he was standing outside having a coffee break. No deaths. Restaurant shaken to hell. A brick, side bldg collapsed next to Jake. He helped work mates escape rubble. Some customers injured by flying glass. 22 Feb 7:22pm.
@Averil. We're OK, others not. 65 confirmed dead, 200 trapped in collapsed bldgs. [Death toll would increase]. Friend trapped in a 7th floor lift [emigrated to Australia post quakes]. Search & Rescue teams working flat out. 22 Feb 7:26pm.
@Sheila. Esslemonts OK. Power, phones all down for a few hours this afternoon. We're the only suburb [Burnside] in the city with water. Leah says our computer's making a ghastly noise, so I'm doing FB comments before everything packs up. Another aftershock while I type! Leah's been in phone contact with Alan, her mom, sister. 22 Feb 7:28pm.
@Crombie, Linda, Zwelethu: Esslemonts OK. Running on adrenalin. Series of big Christchurch quakes today 22.02.11, from 12:51, then aftershocks all afternoon - evening ongoing. Sons with girlfriends. Leah & I having supper watching TV breaking news till 11pm. CBD devastated, National State of Emergency 5 days, schools closed. 22 Feb 7:35pm.
@Keylim, Quentin, David. Still shaking. Phones jammed. Texting recommended by Civil Defence. 22 Feb 7:45pm.
@Mike. Numbed, we're becoming used to aftershocks, more than 4 500 since the 4 Sept Darfield Quake. [Moot number]. Aftershocks ongoing, one jiggling the pc while I type. So death has touched us all.
State of Emergency for next 5 days, difficult to get into the CBD due to cop & military cordons. Must wait a bit before seeing what happened.
Civil Defence & Earthquake Commission personnel directed traffic at crossings, about an hour post quake, much faster response than post 4 Sept Darfield Quake, they've had several months practice. I drove through gridlock traffic, only one traffic light working, on a trip which usually takes 20 mins, took me an hour, to Leah's school, over wrecked roads: cracked, buckled, flooded, oozing liquefaction mud.
One aftershock jiggled my car near a Bealey Ave sinkhole, which had a burst water main during the Sept 4 Darfield Quake. Held my breath, car bouncing, laughed at terrified Asian woman, next door car. Nowhere to go, caught in gridlock, about 2pm, parents around the city fetching kids from schools.
Today's 22.02.11 Killer Quake, more damaging than the 4 Sept Darfield Quake, epicentre closer at Lyttelton, about 10km away from Christchurch, Lyttelton tunnel closed. Lyttelton, Christchurch CBDs badly damaged. 22 Feb 8.12pm.
@Mary Anne, John, Leslye. Esslemonts OK. Others fared worse. We all need kind thoughts and prayers now. 22 Feb 8.20pm.
@Tracey, Sue, Cassidy, Chris. Jittery! Now to raid the leftover Xmas cake. Brandy bottle half full still. 22 Feb 8.58pm.
Coda:
I sent the following report to Durban, Daily News journalist, Mike Tarr. My Shaken and Shocked report made Durban Daily News front page:
My family and I survived the 22.02.11 quake with many aftershocks, a more destructive quake than the Sept 4 quake, as Lyttelton epicentre was closer to Christchurch and the intensity was greater. People died, people were trapped in collapsed buildings, rescuers worked hard to save them.
12:51. Home alone I thought, "Not again!" I stood by our front door, ready to escape if our house collapsed. The house jolted and shook, enough to destroy me and my adopted city. I watched my neighbours' trees dance. Shaken and shocked I trembled.
"Stay calm!" I thought while I checked our house and cleaned up. Our Burnside suburb got off lightly, the rest of Christchurch messed.
I texted my sons, both OK. Jakes' restaurant had collapsed while he was outside drinking coffee.
I drove along broken, flooded roads to my wife's school, London St, to help. Cars weaved on gridlocked roads.
I passed broken houses, collapsed garden wall, bricks flung about, broken robots [traffic lights], grey liquefaction mud and water pouring from roads and gardens.
On Bealey Ave where a water main had burst during an aftershock, my car bounced by a sinkhole. I feared it was my grave. An Asian woman in the next door car looked scared. I laughed while bumping along.
School staff waited for parents to pick up kids. The school was surrounded by liquefaction: obscene grey, mud volcanoes, oozing grey silt and water in the carpark and playground, cold water boiling from last night's rain.
My wife said her 6-9 year old pupils had dived under their desks, as trained. Some trembled, some wept, some froze - numb. Her car was stuck in liquefaction silt.
I trekked stricken Richmond neighbourhood, while cops and Civil Defence directed traffic past road cordons. A brick wall had peeled off Richmond Working Mens Club, with rubble by a mud stuck car. Mud oozed in parks and cracked roads.
I trekked wasted roads, numb people sitting in soggy gardens, too scared to stay in their houses, aftershocks ongoing.
That night I felt overwhelmed, with jittery, nervous exhaustion, too vigilant to sleep. During aftershocks, I felt hysterical, spurts of anger, tearful, laughed like crazy, joked, till the next quake.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
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