Mt Pleasant, Port Hills, Quake Damages

Mt Pleasant focus. Sat 21.05.11. Three months post 22 February 2011 quake, M6.3, I trekked a lower circuit of Mt Pleasant, Port Hills. Except for my trek to Lyttelton two months post 4 September 2010 quake, it was my first trek to see what quakes did to Port Hills suburbs. I drove up Soleares Ave until stopped by a ROAD CLOSED sign & steel-mesh-fence-cordon across the road by a roadside rockfall. I parked my car & backtracked to snap eight ruined-houses above the Soleares Ave rockfall. Later those ruins would be green-zoned by CERA!


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, Oamaru, limestone bricks, Soleares Ave footpath


Oamaru whitestone bricks were strewn on a footpath. Oamaru whitestone was soft limestone, whitestone bricks useless: crumbling, shearing, separating from mortar.

Broken garden-walls, slumped, liquefactioned-gardens, cracked-driveways. Upper-storey house-wall, peeled off, bedroom-contents intact: bed made up, light-fittings & wall-mirror were OK.

I saw that "dolls house" strangeness all over Christchurch: brick-walls ripped off, room-contents intact. Yet quake-shaking could collapse roofs & smash rooms to bits.



21.05.11. Yellow digger demolishing a house, Soleares Ave

I snapped a yellow-digger demolishing a house at the bottom of the hill.


On my way up again, a grizzled-lady & her dog walked past. I said, "If you go to those ruins they'll scare your pants off. I didn't stay long there." She gave me an odd look.


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, roadside rock fall, Soleares Ave


21.05.11. Rock fall by Feb 22 quake damaged house, Soleares Ave


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, roadside rock fall, Soleares Ave


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, blue portaloo, Soleares Ave


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, blue portaloo, rock fall & quake damaged house, Soleares Ave



Letter-boxes' threat-signs:

DANGER
LIVE WIRES

White-plastic-barrier-tape across driveways & gates:

DANGER KEEP OUT

or

RESTRICTED AREA
PLEASE KEEP OUT

21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, roadside rock fall & fence cordon, Soleares Ave


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, Soleares Ave view, Avon-Heathcote Estuary




21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged house, Soleares Ave



21.05.11. Feb 22 quake slumped garden, Soleares Ave


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged & tarped house, Soleares Ave


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, Oamaru whitestone, brick house, Soleares Ave


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged house, Soleares Ave


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, liquefaction mud & quake damaged garage, Soleares Ave


21.05.11 Feb 22 quake cracked driveway, Soleares Ave


21.05.11. Broken glass by Feb 22 quake damaged house, Soleares Ave

TV news reported looting at Off The Square Hotel during the National State-of-Emergency in the military-cordoned red-zone-CBD. Next day's TV news: a cop said houses in an unnamed road were looted in a hill suburb on 15 April. A couple were interviewed whose evacuated-house was looted. They smilingly said they'd made it easy for looters by labelling their relocation-boxes. The cop recommended removal of POLICE-tape from evacuated-houses, boarding-up evacuated-houses & nailing windows closed. Why did cops & media wake up so long after so-called lootings? Red-stickers, cop DANGER-tapes, USAR / TF cordon-tapes, festooned ruins all over Christchurch, invitations for thieves to help themselves!



21.05.11. ROAD CLOSED. Feb 22 quake, steel mesh fence cordon across Soleares Ave


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, concrete, retaining wall, Soleares Ave

NZ Immigration Service was extending work-visas for foreigners beyond Rugby World Cup 2011. A personnel goon said on TV news that foreign- workers were better than locals, as they made an effort to get to NZ. Despite 1 000s of Cantabrians in the hospitality-industry losing jobs, like Jake, because of the quake AND Christchurch losing hosting of WC matches due to quake-damages, NZ Immigration Service wanted to replace locals with cheap foreign-labour!



21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged house, Soleares Ave




21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, roadside rock fall, Soleares Ave


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged drain, curb & pavement, Soleares Ave



Christchurch Mail 16.05.11 reported: "Based on the number of homes with damage at or above the EQC's $100 000 cap, Mount Pleasant tops the numbers of similarly damaged Bexley homes by three..." Christchurch Mail gave numbers damaged above the $100 000 cap: "Mount Pleasant 740; Bexley 737; Burwood 552; Moncks Bay 511; Avondale 458; Dallington 444; Travis 398; Rawhiti 377; Aranui 358; St Martins 328." That meant all those EQC overcap-houses would then have to claim from their house-insurers for repairs or rebuilds.

That didn't count 1 000s of houses with EQC claims damages less than $100 000 each. Crucial: Was a building red-stickered, or not? If red- stickered, the building had to be abandoned & home-owners had to seek accommodation elsewhere. They were compelled to negotiate with EQC & / or insurers, enabling repairs, rebuild or purchase of another property, or not. Never mind displacement & disruption of education & jobs.

The $100 000 cap was an amount fixed by NZ government & EQC pre-2007 to fix quake-damaged houses. By the time the 2010-2011 quakes struck, the $100 000 cap wasn't increased, despite EQC requesting NZ government to do so in 2007. That resulted in EQC being under-insured by reinsurers & the farrago of EQC & Fletcher "fixing" undercap houses & home-owners compelled to negotiate with their insurers to fix or rebuild overcap-houses. That left home-owners caught between EQC & insurers, causing squabbles & delayed settlement for many home-owners.


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged house, Soleares Ave


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, beige portaloo & cabbage tree, Soleares Ave


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, boarded house, Soleares Ave




I sweated up steep Soleares Ave, past a children's playground, past footpath-portaloos & side-roads with fey Spanish names like Cadiz Ln, Santa Maria Ave... Road-damage was repaired, but broken-footpaths, broken-driveways, broken-retaining-walls remained. Several ghost-houses on my up-trek were part-repaired: boards on broken-windows & broken-walls. Cars passed on Soleares Ave, but had to turn back at the steel-mesh-fence-cordon across the road.



21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, concrete, breeze block, garden wall, Soleares Ave


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, boarded house, Soleares Ave



21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged wall, Soleares Ave



21.05.11. Orange portaloo & Feb 22 quake damaged, boarded house, Soleares Ave



21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, boarded house, Soleares Ave


21.05.11. Orange, plastic, road cones. NO EXIT. RESIDENTS ACCESS ONLY signs. Feb 22 quake, Soleares Ave

From Soleares Ave / Mt Pleasant Rd junction, I trekked up Mt Pleasant Rd a bit, snapping more ghost-houses. Down- trekking, I saw more broken-homes, broken-roofs, some homes boarded as on Soleares Ave. Down-trekking Mt Pleasant Rd, I snapped ghost- houses across the valley towards Soleares Ave: boarded-homes, damaged-roofs, tarps on walls & roofs.


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged Mt Pleasant Rd house, seen from Soleares Ave cnr



21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged house, Soleares Ave / Mt Pleasant Rd junction


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, boarded house, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, brown portaloo, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, man fixing stone retaining wall, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, concrete block supported power pole & road works, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged houses, Mt Pleasant Rd




21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged roof, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Skips in Feb 22 quake damaged driveway, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged roof, Mt Pleasant Rd



21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, boarded house, Mt Pleasant Rd


Mt Pleasant Rd footpath was bad: slumped in places, some shingle-repairs filled in quake-holes. Some ruined-driveways: slumped, cracked. Down-trekking, I passed paired-portaloos, ghost-houses with collapsed-walls, demolished-houses, several tilted-garages & broken- garages & red-stickered houses. As houses were on slopes, many scattered roof-tiles could be seen on roofs. I saw gaps on roofs where tiles fell..


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged roof, The Rise / Mt Pleasant Rd junction


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, boarded house, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, orange & grey / blue portaloos, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, new concrete & names over fixed, leaky pipe, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, tarped & boarded houses, Mt Pleasant Rd




21.05.11. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon, Feb 22 quake damaged Mt Pleasant Rd



21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, orange & Burgandy portaloos, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged roof, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged house, Mt Pleasant Rd



21.05.11. Mt Pleasant Rd view, Feb 22 quake damaged houses near Soleares Ave




21.05.11. Mt Pleasant Rd view, Feb 22 quake damaged houses & McCormacks Bay

Traffic wound its way up the Port Hills, several cyclists & walkers passed. Gardening: an old man fixed his greystone retaining-wall, a couple sawed two pine saplings by their driveway.


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged ceiling, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, green roof, Mt Pleasant Rd







21.05.11. Feb 22 quake collapsed garage, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged house wall, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged garage, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged house, Mt Pleasant Rd



21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged roof, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, house wall & roof, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Mt Pleasant Rd view, Feb 22 quake damaged houses near Soleares Ave



21.05.11. Fallen tree across Feb 22 quake damaged driveway, Mt Pleasant Rd



21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged house, Mt Pleasant Rd

At the bottom of Mt Pleasant Rd, a Council sign advised about sewer-renewal in McCormacks Bay Rd, as the sewage-system from Ferrymead Bridge all the way to Sumner was ruined by the 22 February 2011 quake. After the quake, McCormacks Bay Rd was lumpy, bumpy & liquefactioned, but was used as a one-way road, while damaged Main Rd causeway was patch-repaired.

Eleven months later, June 2012, the causeway would still be one of the worst roads in Christchurch. Slow SCIRT repairs forced people to endure Third World conditions. Newly appointed SCIRT boss Mark Ford would direct SCIRT repairs from Auckland, as Ford deigned relocating to Christchurch. Like Christchurch town clerk Tony Marryatt, working weeks in Christchurch, but flying home to Hamilton in weekends. And Marryatt owned a Christchurch house too!

In 1987 apartheid SA, during a National State-of-Emergency, I'd experienced similar half-baked management when I'd lived & taught in Third World QwaQwa homeland, where most management staff lived in white towns (Harrismith, Kestell, Bethlehem) away from black QwaQwa.

Only in 2013 would the causeway be closed for permanent repairs. McCormacks Bay Rd then became a lumpy, congested detour.


21.05.11. Mt Pleasant Rd, Feb 22 quake demolished house view, Mt Pleasant & Balmoral Hill


21.05.11. Mt Pleasant Rd, Feb 22 quake demolished house view, McCormacks Bay


21.05.11. Red / white, plastic, tape cordon. Mt Pleasant Rd, Feb 22 quake demolished house view, Mt Pleasant


21.05.11. Mt Pleasant Rd view, Feb 22 quake damaged houses near Soleares Ave


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, Mt Pleasant Rd view, McCormacks Bay & Avon-Heathcote Estuary


21.05.11. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon & orange portaloo by road slumping. Feb 22 quake damaged, Mt Pleasant Rd



McCormacks Bay Rd: I trekked parallel to causeway traffic, sunny views over Avon-Heathcote Estuary. I trekked past road-excavations, sewage-stink wafting from fenced mud-holes, past diggers & huge, black plastic-sewer-pipes, stacked, for burial under the road.


21.05.11. DANGER KEEP OUT. White, plastic, tape cordon. Feb 22 quake, locked house gate & quake restriction signs, Mt Pleasant Rd. Thieves invitation


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake demolition, Mt Pleasant Rd



21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged garage, Mt Pleasant Rd



21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged garden wall, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, green portaloo by houses, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. DANGER KEEP OUT. White, plastic, tape cordon. Feb 22 quake, red stickered house, Mt Pleasant Rd



21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged garage, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged house wall, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, grey portaloos, Mt Pleasant Rd

I passed several red-stickered ruined-houses, some boarded. One had shattered corner-walls. Clothing still hung in a broken second-storey cupboard, nearby bed was skewed. The house would be demolished & rebuilt.


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, blue tarped houses, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, tiled roof, Mt Pleasant Rd

Mt Pleasant Squash Club: busy Saturday Farmers Market, crowd socializing, buying from stalls. Kids' playground: quakemire heap.


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake, roadside business signs, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, tiled roof, Mt Pleasant Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged house, Mt Pleasant Rd


Trekked up Soleares Ave again, back to my car, past a pharmacy, community notices in the window. Flames restaurant, open for business. Snapped more ghost houses.


21.05.11. Christchurch City Council, sewer repair sign, McCormacks Bay Rd. June 13 quake would trash Christchurch sewer system again


21.05.11. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. Feb 22 quake, orange digger, new sewer excavations, McCormacks Bay Rd


21.05.11. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. Feb 22 quake damaged, Main Rd causeway by Avon-Heathcote Estuary


21.05.11. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel fence cordon. Feb 22 quake, 2 orange diggers, new sewer excavations, McCormacks Bay Rd




Over the week the coroner released the last few names of those who'd died in the 22 February 2011 quake. Cops released details of where 182 died: 115 in CTV; 18 in PGC; 36 more in CBD; 12 in suburbs; one name later added to the list (The Press 21.05.11). Death-toll would increase to 185, due to injury-deaths. Why did cops & coroner take so long?


21.05.11.Orange, plastic, road cones, white, plastic, tape cordon. Orange digger buckets, contractor's orange caravan & Feb 22 quake damaged house by sewer renewal, McCormacks Bay Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake trashed bedroom, McCormacks Bay Rd. The house would be demolished & rebuilt



21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, boarded house, McCormacks Bay Rd



21.05.11. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel fence cordon. Feb 22 quake damaged, boarded house by sewer renewal, McCormacks Bay Rd



21.05.11. Feb 22 quake cracked, kidsfirst wall, McCormacks Bay Rd


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, wood repaired house, McCormacks Bay Rd


21.05.11. Post Feb 22 quake, farmers market, McCormacks Bay Rd


Wed 25.05.11. 6am, 7km deep, 10km SE of Chch, M4.1 quake woke us up. (GeoNet).

That night I watched the TV programme "5 Days in the Red Zone" where two rubbernecking-cops drove from Alexandra to ruined Christchurch to save Cantabrians from themselves. They gawped ruins in the CBD forbidden red-zone, including Christ Church Cathedral ruin. At Papanui they were shocked to see "rubberneckers" (their word) taking pics of an old brick-ruin being demolished.


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged, boarded house, McCormacks Bay Rd


That Harewood Rd / Main Nth Rd  ruin, which awed those cops, was fence-cordoned for months since the 4 September 2010 quake. I'd snapped that ruin on my weekly jaunts to Papanui National Bank & Northlands Mall. An adjacent ruin was already part-demolished, long before those gormless cops arrived. Just another demolition.


21.05.11. Steel fence, orange, plastic, road cone cordon. Feb 22 quake bent, boarded house, McCormacks Bay Rd



21.05.11. Post Feb 22 quake, sewer renewal signs & farmers market, McCormacks Bay Rd

The cops were also shocked at photographers taking pics of Sydenham Heritage Church ruin, also damaged by the 4 September 2010 quake & 22 February 2011 quake. The old stone-church was empty for years, an eyesore, Brougham St / Colombo St. I'd snapped the church long before those cops gawped. The church was demolished early during the National State-of-Emergency. Those hypocritical cops complained about photographers while snapping themselves!


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged houses, McCormacks Bay Rd / Soleares Ave



21.05.11. Post Feb 22 quake, community notices in pharmacy window, Soleares Ave

The cops, with a TV-cameraman, forgot they were in Christchurch on sufferance, during the National State-of-Emergency. Their vehicle-patrolling messed ruined-roads, they took accommodation & supplies like water, food, power, petrol from citizens, forbidden entering the red-zone.


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake damaged house & blue portaloo, Soleares Ave


21.05.11. Feb 22 quake. ROAD CLOSED. Steel mesh fence cordoned, Soleares Ave by roadside rock fall


21.05.11. Post Feb 22 quake, woman & dog wandering by a roadside rock fall, Soleares Ave

*Trekked Soleares Ave, Mt Pleasant Rd, McCormacks Bay Rd, Main Rd. 209 snaps.

Coda:

Wed 14.11.12. 18 months later, The Press would report that although green-zoned, the eight ruined-houses I saw at the bottom of Soleares Ave could not be timeously repaired, as council deigned to pay $2.5 million fixing an access-road to those eight houses, to enable builders / repairers access to the eight houses. So much for mayor Parker & town clerk Marryatt looking after ratepayers. That slow timing also gave an idea of slow land-zoning by CERA & slow negotiations by EQC & insurers messing home-owners around.

Those eight home-owners were a microcosm of frustrations & anger endured by 7 860 red-zoned home-owners & about 28 000 TC3 green-blue- zoned home-owners. (CERA Greater Christchurch Recovery Update, Issue 15 November 2012). During quake-times CERA would blow its own trumpet by posting issues of its Greater Christchurch Recovery Update to households & libraries.

Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.