Durham St Nth: The two-storey apartment ruin collapsed onto the garage-floor beneath, crushing a car, the upper two storeys tilted, walls cracked, resting on the pancaked garage-floor. Windows were broken. Garden-wall & concrete-brick rubble on footpath, steel-mesh-fence-cordoned. Tilted power-pole. It wasn't the first modern building, with empty space on the bottom floor, I'd seen ruined by the 22 February 2011 quake. The ruin would soon be demolished. 2019, the demolition-site would still be vacant.
25.03.11. Steel fence cordon. Feb 22 quake collapsed bldg, Durham St Nth, national state of emergency. The bldg would be demolished. Sept 2019, the demo site would still be vacant
Salisbury St: Recently, I'd seen another apartment-block tilted over quakemired, open garages. As for the Hotel Grand Chancellor ghost in the cordoned-CBD, same thing: A road passed under one end of Hotel Grand Chancellor leaving a weak space, cantilevered, multi-storey hotel above. When the 22 February 2011 quake struck, hotel columns opposite the road space cracked, tilting Hotel Grand Chancellor. Hotel Grand Chancellor would soon be demolished.
25.03.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake damaged bldg, Springfield Rd / Durham St Nth, national state of emergency. The bldg would be demolished
Circuit-trekked from Springfield Rd along Derby St, Papanui Rd, Bealey Ave, back to my car, snapping quake damages N of the CBD cordon, some of which I'd already seen.
Springfield Rd / Durham St Nth: Damaged, old, two-storey, brick ghost, bus-route passing by. Fallen parapet & second-storey, brick- wall, exposed roof-space & rooms were blue-tarped. Bottom shop-window was broken. Tilted, cracked brick-wall, steel-mesh-fence-cordoned. Many old, brick, corner buildings were damaged by quakes: all that pre-quake weakening by rumbling vehicle-trtaffic & bus-traffic.
25.03.11. Feb 22 quake, Springfield Rd view down Derby St, national state of emergency
Derby St: Roadside brick rubble-heaps. A Heritage-brick garden-wall was collapsed on the footpath. Sign on a tree: DO NOT REMOVE BRICKS. Damaged-houses: old & modern, rubble in gardens, steel-mesh-fence-cordoned, or plastic-barrier-tape-cordoned: One trashed, red-stickered, yellow wooden-house had boarded-windows. A pink, spray-painted threat on a boarded window: STAY OUT! Despite media narrative about citizens' "resilience" & "heroic" emergency services, Christchurch was unfriendly & fearful since the quakes. Thousands fled their ruined homes, some leaving Christchurch for good.
Sarah Miles's book The Christchurch Fiasco (p 202) would state: "Preliminary observations of the impact of the February 22 earthquake showed that an estimated 65 000 people, or approximately 17 percent of Christchurch's population, left the city following the February earthquake." We didn't leave, as immigrants we had no nearby family nor anywhere else to go. Besides, we had no money to move. Leah was working two jobs to make ends meet. She would do so for three decades due to my profound deafness which stopped me working.
25.03.11. Feb 22 quake collapsed brick, garden wall, Derby St, national state of emergency
Derby St / Papanui Rd: One News still camped in porta-cabins opp Carlton Hotel ghost.
25.03.11. Feb 22 quake, One News porta-cabin camp, Derby St / Papanui Rd, quake trashed, Carlton Hotel backdrop. Carlton Hotel would be demolished.
25.03.11. Sept 4 quake damaged, Feb 22 quake trashed Carlton Hotel (to be demolished) Papanui Rd / Bealey Ave, national state of emergency
Papanui Rd / Bealey Ave: Two-storey Carlton Hotel ghost, scaffolded Bealey Ave side. Fallen brick-parapet, fallen top-storey, brick-wall, exposing passage & rooms, ceiling fallen in one room. Brick-rubble lay on Papanui Rd footpath, yellow USAR / TF graffiti spray-painted on a board atop the rubble, steel-mesh-fence-cordoned. Opposite corner, Carlton Courts, next to One News camp: SORRY WE'RE CLOSED, Sophies Cafe, two rows of pics on a window, smiling Sophie, smiling news-readers. Neighbouring cafes: some open, some closed.
Carlton Courts, including Sophies Cafe, would be closed in 2012, steel-mesh-fence-cordoned, obstructing traffic for months. In 2013 the fence- cordon would be removed, Carlton Courts staying closed for repairs. Sophies Cafe was originally green-stickered. Calton Courts would survive the quakes.
25.03.11. Feb 22 quake, celeb pics in Sophies Cafe window, opp quake trashed Carlton Hotel, Papanui Rd, national state of emergency
Bealey Ave / Victoria St: Bare demolition-site where old, brick Saggio di vino ruin & other old, brick-ruins were demolished behind steel-mesh-fence-cordons.
25.03.11. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Saggio di vino demolition site, Bealey Ave / Victoria St, national state of emergency
25.03.11. Sept 4 quake damaged, Feb 22 quake trashed Knox Presbyterian Church & steel fence cordon, blue tarp, checkpoint hut, Bealey Ave / Victoria St, national state of emergency. Knox Church would be restored with copper clad walls in 2014
25.03.11. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel fence, steel mesh fence cordon & blue tarp, checkpoint hut. Yellow, Hi-Vis vested cop on a bicycle, cordon checkpoint by quake trashed Knox Presbyterian Church, Bealey Ave / Victoria St, national state of emergency
Bealey Ave: A yellow, Hi-Vis vested cop on a bike checked NZDF-soldiers at Victoria St cordon, by 4 September 2010 & 22 February 2011 ruined Knox Church. On other cordon-treks, I'd seen NZDF-soldiers cycling CBD-cordons too. Better than endangering lives & buildings with cop-cars & heavy military-vehicles. Military-checkpoint huts were still makeshift, metal-constructions with blue-tarped roofs.
A USAR / TF team had yellow spray-painted NO GO on Knox Church's gaping brick walls. A cordon-fence banner with a cross superimposed on a heart:
BROKEN BUT STILL
BEATING
the heart of Christchurch
is People like Us!
2014. Knox Church would be restored with copper-clad walls.
25.03.11. Feb 22 quake, red ribboned, memorial, olive tree, Bealey Ave, national state of emergency
Bealey Ave: Two upright, potted memorial-trees had goodwill-messages on red-ribbons & cards tied to the trees. Days before when I'd passed, the nor'wester downed those trees on the footpath.
Bealey Ave / Stoneyhurst St: Fallen brick, garden-wall, rubble-heap on footpath.
25.03.11. Feb 22 quake collapsed brick wall, Stoneyhurst St / Bealey Ave, national state of emergency
Bealey Ave / Montreal St crossing, Temporary Bus Exchange: Five buses parked on Bealey Ave, awaited few passengers for free rides. Few people used buses at the best of times. Pre-quakes, heavy buses obstructed traffic & damaged Christchurch's narrow roads. Their rumbling caused pre-quake damage to old brick-buildings & old stone-buildings.
Bealey Ave, white bus sign: EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE REQUIRES USE OF THIS TEMPORARY BUS. COMING SOON 32 BRAND NEW BIO FUEL BUSES.
25.03.11. Post Feb 22 quake, Temp Bus Exchange, Bealey Ave, national state of emergency
I had mixed-feelings about Christchurch buses: Luke was bussing past Hagley Park when the 22 February 2011 quake struck. He watched chaos from his bus-seat along Moorhouse Ave. The bus-driver ordered all passengers off, near what was later known as the red-zone CBD- cordon. How many dumped passengers wandered the CBD during deadly 22 February 2011 quake aftershocks?
A miracle: Luke was picked up on Moorhouse Ave during heavy aftershocks & stayed with his girlfriend's family in quaking South New Brighton for three days. Otherwise Luke would've trekked home to Burnside through the quake-ruined CBD. I dreaded thinking of the consequences.
25.03.11. Feb 22 quake, grey & blue portaloos by temp bus exchange, Bealey Ave, national state of emergency
But buses did great post-quake service transporting school-students to & from NO GO schools during the National State-of-Emergency, doing double-shift with safer-schools, like Avonside Girls High students bussing to Burnside HS & Shirley Boys High students bussing to Papanui HS. Students were disrupted by the 22 February 2011 quake, students & teachers from NO GO schools unable to retrieve books & personal possessions.
Cops would have to foot-patrol near shared schools at change-over times, stopping fighting students, or student groups intimidating public at Northlands Mall. (The Press).
25.03.11. White, plastic tape, steel mesh fence cordon. Sept 4 quake damaged, Feb 22 quake trashed, brick house, Bealey Ave, national state of emergency. The house would be demolished
Bealey Ave: Several old, brick-ruins, some demolished, like the Deanery & Springfield Rd corner Marae. One old brick-house: Fallen brick-walls, rooms exposed, rubble on footpath, steel-mesh-fence-cordoned. The Deanery demolition left brick-rubble in the garden, a blue- portaloo on the footpath. The fallen brick, garden-wall had pink USAR / TF graffito, NO X GO, white-plastic-barrier-tape-cordoned.
25.03.11. Pink NO X GO. White, plastic tape cordon. Feb 22 quake, blue portaloo, Deanery demolition site, Bealey Ave, national state of emergency.
Bealey Ave / Springfield Rd: Two posties untied their bikes from a van. They cycled away, delivering mail.
Two Maori women sat on their first-floor balcony, smoking. They stared at the demolished Marae opposite their flat: Brick-rubble & roof- rubble lay in the garden. USAR / TF had orange spray-painted NO GO on the Marae brick gate-post, steel-mesh-fence-cordoned. "You've a good view of the mess," I called. They smiled.
25.03.11. Feb 22 quake, Marae sign, Springfield Rd / Bealey Ave, national state of emergency
25.03.11. NO GO. White, plastic tape, steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake trashed, demolished Marae, Bealey Ave / Springfield Rd, national state of emergency
Bealey Ave / Park Tce: En route home, I passed an NZDF-soldiers' checkpoint: makeshift blue-tarp hut & concrete-block-cordon across Park Tce, strangling CBD-businesses & strangling CBD-homes.
National State-of-Emergency: Cantabrian civil liberties were curtailed by the military-occupation: cordon-barriers, cordon-barricades controlled by cops & NZDF-soldiers. Homes & businesses were strangled in the cordoned-CBD. The military-cordon around Christchurch CBD would continue till July 2013, a 28 month military-occupation. In 2011, too shocked, there was hardly a whimper from civilians. Christchurch public-protests would evolve in 2012. SILENCE from the rest of NZ.
25.03.11. Makeshift, blue tarp, checkpoint hut. Orange, plastic, road cones, concrete block cordon. Feb 22 quake, national state of emergency, cordon checkpoint, Bealey Ave / Park Tce
*Trekked Durham St Nth, Springfield Rd, Derby St, Papanui Rd, Bealey Ave. 63 snaps.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
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