15.06.11. June 13 quake, green, plastic, sewage tank & liquefaction silt, Richmond Working Mens Club, Cumberland St
15.06.11. June 13 quake: liquefaction of Sept 4 quake demolition site, Stanmore Rd / Avalon St
15.06.11. Post June 13 quake: Sept 4 quake damaged brick shop, Stanmore Rd
On our arrival, a team of female staff & parents were shovelling quakemire from the school carpark & playground, into silt heaps on London St by the front gate & Pavitt St by the back gate. Post Feb 22 Killer Quake & June 13 Quake, in four months, it was the second time the school dug itself out of quakemire. As classrooms were already tidied, I left staff & drove up silt dusty Stanmore Rd.
15.06.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Sept 4 quake damaged, Feb 22 quake collapsed, June 13 quake trashed Richmond Methodist Church Hall, Stanmore Rd. The church hall would be demolished
Stanmore Rd: Richmond Methodist Church Hall ghost lay collapsed behind a steel mesh fence cordon. Like Richmond Methodist Church, many Christchurch churches needed demolition! e.g. Christ Church Cathedral, Cathedral Sq; St Lukes Anglican Church, Manchester St; St Johns Anglican Church, Latimer Sq; St Pauls, Madras St; Holy Trinity Avonside, Lychgate Cl; Methodist Church, Durham St Nth; St Marys, Church Ln; Chinese Methodist Church, Papanui Rd... They were all brick or stone death traps.
Weeks before the Feb 22 Killer Quake, Leah & I'd wandered Christ Church Cathedral. Post Sept 4 Darfield Quake, inside the cathedral the back nave wall was scaffolded, while workmen checked the nave back wall. Workmen checked cathedral windows from outside scaffolding too. A hazardous waste of time & money. Never mind allowing citizens & tourists into the dangerous, greystone cathedral.
15.06.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. June 13 quake: Sept 4 quake demolition site view, Feb 22 & June 13 quake collapsed Richmond Methodist Church Hall, seen from Avalon St. The church hall would be demolished
Snapped Richmond Methodist Church Hall ghost, part collapsed by the Feb 22 Killer Quake, completely collapsed by the June 13 Quake. That was the destruction pattern of deadly, old, brick & stone bldgs in Christchurch quakes, damaged by one quake, trashed by the next.
Richmond Working Mens Club sign on a Thai Restaurant wall:
RICHMOND CLUB
& RESTAURANT
NOW OPEN
7 DAYS
Wishful thinking, as Richmond Working Mens Club would be demolished over the next 2 years. 2021. Richmond Club would be built on site, 10 years post quakes.
That warm, wintry day, I trekked to see Avon River damage on some riverside roads. Did a circular trek in the Horseshoe Lake area seeing damage there. Drove along liquefactioned North Avon Rd & North Pde, where workmen laid new tarseal by Shirley Boys High School ghost & Marian College. New heaps of grey quakemire lay on roadsides of all roads I drove, a sunny day for clean up.
15.06.11. June 13 quake, Horseshoe Lake Reserve signs, Broomfield Tce
15.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefaction boils by Horseshoe Lake Reserve, steel mesh fence cordon, Broomfield Tce
15.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned footpath, Broomfield Tce
15.06.11. June 13 quake damaged house, Broomfield Tce
15.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefaction flooded, tilted power pole, Broomfield Tce
Cops, soldiers, student digger gangs were absent. In past quakes, teams of volunteer student diggers & volunteer farmer digger teams, lauded by media, had shovelled grey quakemire from properties. Now owners of trashed homes got on with it, some clearing away silt for the third time, after 4 major quakes in 9 months.
15.06.11. June 13 quake damaged house, red zone, Kingsford St
15.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefaction silt haulage truck, red zone, Kingsford St
15.06.11. June 13 quake, orange, sewage pump & sewage sucker tanker, red zone, Kingsford St
That night, TV news said that the Farmy Army would be operating by the end of the week & the Student Volunteer Army would arrive at the end of the next week, after completing exams. By that time citizens would've dug most of the mud themselves. Silt left too long dried like cement. And stank!
Although there was much more mud, volunteer mud digging was not as glamorous post Feb 22 Darfield Quake & June 13 Quake as post Sept 4 Darfield Quake. Fewer photo ops & the novelty of student labouring had worn off. Shovelling tons of mud, quake after quake, was tedious. As student mud digging was started by a varsity student, mud digging was formalized by Canterbury University, making mud digging part of a university volunteer course!
15.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned red zone, Kingsford St / Goodman St
15.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned driveway, red zone, Kingsford St
After driving along liquefactioned New Brighton Rd, I parked at Broomfield Tce by Horseshoe Lake Reserve. The reserve board had a CONTAMINATED WATER threat sign & PARK AREA CLOSED HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS threat sign. I did a circular trek along liquefactioned roads in Horseshoe Lake loop: Kingsford St, Alice St, Queensbury St, New Brighton Rd...
15.06.11. June 13 quake damaged house (damaged by previous quakes too), red zone, Kingsford St
All roads I trekked in Horseshoe Lake area were badly liquefactioned: sticky, grey mud, flood puddles, sinkholes, slippery mud on pavements, mud boils & volcanoes in gardens & on pavements. Broken, tilted houses. Portaloos on pavements. In two places, I passed fallen power lines in or close to the mud. Council sign on a fence:
WATER
ALL WATER MUST BE BOILED
Post previous quakes, blue, plastic, water pipes lined roads & pavements in all areas of Christchurch, including Horseshoe Lake. Those blue, plastic, water pipes showed the extent of infrastructure damage to Christchurch roads.
15.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned housing, red zone, Kingsford St
15.06.11. Yellow portaloo. June 13 quake, liquefaction flooding & sewage sucker pipe, red zone, Kingsford St / Liggins St
15.06.11. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. June 13 quake, green, plastic, sewage tank & liquefaction flooding, red zone, Kingsford St
Kingsford St: Sept 4 Darfield Quake damaged houses I'd seen before the Feb 22 Killer Quake were still damaged, tarped, wood braced, boarded, some more damaged, power poles leaning. Saw only one house demolition site near the end of Kingsford St.
15.06.11. June 13 quake, red zone, blue portaloo & liquefactioned Kingsford St / Tasman Pl
15.06.11. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. June 13 quake, liquefactioned pavement & road flooding, red zone, Kingsford St. Brown puddle due to sewage leaks
15.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefaction mud digger, red zone, Kingsford St
Quakemire clean ups: families, old couples, children off school until their closed schools were deemed safe. Spade & barrow work done along all roads I trekked, home owners shovelling grey quakemire onto roadside heaps.
15.06.11. June 13 quake damaged & liquefactioned house, red zone, Kingsford St
15.06.11. Blue, plastic, water pipe, blue portaloo, red zone, Kingsford St
Kingsford St: A red pump pumping sewage I'd seen before the Feb 22 Killer Quake still pumped sewage. Sewage sucker truck, parked by the pump in the middle of the road. All streets had colourful portaloos on pavements.
15.06.11. June 13 quake damaged, liquefactioned housing, red zone, Kingsford St
15.06.11. June 13 quake, orange, plastic, road cones cordoning a liquefaction sinkhole, red zone, Kingsford St
Quakemire needed to be to removed asap, as sewage pipes were broken. What sewage bugs, E coli, gastroenteritis, typhoid, cholera, were floating around? Most mud was iron grey, some mud brown with crappy scum. Stinking! Blue, plastic, water pipes snaked through crappy mud. God knows what I splashed through that morning? Trucks hauled roadside mud away, dumped at Burwood dump. We all had to boil drinking water for a week post June 13 Quake, like previous quakes.
15.06.11. June 13 quake damaged, liquefactioned housing, red zone, Kingsford St
15.06.11. June 13 quake: Sept 4 & Feb 22 quake demolition site, red zone, Kingsford St
15.06.11. Feb 22 quake & June 13 quake tilted, liquefactioned housing, blue, plastic, water pipe in sewage, red zone, Kingsford St
15.06.11. Quake tilted power poles, droopy power line. June 13 quake damaged, liquefactioned housing, red zone, Kingsford St
15.06.11. June 13 quaked car in liquefaction shit, red zone, Kingsford St
15.06.11. DANGER KEEP OUT. Red, plastic, tape cordon. June 13 quake damaged house, red zone, Kingsford St
15.06.11. June 13 quake, green, plastic, sewage tank, liquefactioned red zone, Alice St
15.06.11. June 13 quake damaged, liquefactioned housing, red zone, Alice St
Some houses were empty, some gardens overgrown. Home owners waited, while EQC & insurers delayed payments & Council, NZ National govt & CERA procrastinated, after 9 months of quakes & slow geotech reports, whether home owners would be paid out, or told to abandon their houses & rebuild elsewhere.
Some home owners in liquid shit had closed homes, giving up mud / sewage digging. What was the point while Brownlee's CERA dithered? CERA had been in the mud seat for 6 weeks since the Feb 22 Killer Quake, National State of Emergency expired. June 13 Quake then shocked CERA out of its honeymoon with Council.
15.06.11. Feb 22 quake & June 13 quaked house in liquefaction mud & shit, red zone, Alice St
15.06.11. June 13 quake damaged, liquefactioned housing, red zone, Alice St
Queensbury St: Two red, front end loaders splashed through liquefaction flooding, loading mud into a truck. Near New Brighton Rd a septic tank, sucker truck splashed past. The driver gave me a friendly wave. Making megabucks.
15.06.11. June 13 quake damaged, liquefactioned housing, red zone, Queensbury St
15.06.11. June 13 quake, red zone, liquefaction mud diggers, yellow portaloos, Queensbury St / Goodman St
15.06.11. June 13 quake, red & orange, front end loaders for liquefaction silt removal, red zone, Queensbury St
15.06.11. June 13 quake damaged, liquefactioned housing, red zone, Queensbury St
15.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefaction flooding, red zone, Queensbury St
15.06.11. June 13 quake, red zone, green portaloo & sewage pumping, liquefactioned Queensbury St & Reaby St
15.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned housing, red zone, Queensbury St
15.06.11. June 13 quake, septic tank, sucker tanker, red zone, Queensbury St
Horseshoe Lake was a microcosm of thousands of liquefactioned areas in Christchurch. That day I saw shocked faces, doomed, damned. Those faces hadn't experienced CERA's red zoning of Horseshoe Lake yet. More shocks.
At the bottom of liquefactioned Queensbury St, a yellow sign, with emergency phone numbers & welfare centre & water website, was attached to a power pole. Since the September 4 Darfield Quake, those yellow emergency signs were attached to many power poles:
EARTHQUAKE
CONTACTS
GOVT HELPLINE
...
INSTEAD OF 111:
AMBULANCE ...
FIRE SERVICE ...
HEALTH AND SAFETY AND HOUSE ISSUES
...
FOR QUERIES ABOUT MISSING PERSONS
... (... RED CROSS)
FOR INFORMATION REGARDING WELFARE CENTRES
AND WATER SEE ...
15.06.11. June 13 quake, red zone, earthquake info sign, yellow portaloo, Queensbury St / New Brighton Rd
Drove back to Burnside via New Brighton Rd, Locksley Ave, Dallington Tce , River Rd. Roads were liquefactioned, slumping riverside, due to lateral spreading. New cracks on all riverside roads I drove.
15.06.11. Feb 22 quake & June 13 quake trashed, steel mesh fence cordoned shop, red zone, New Brighton Rd
15.06.11. June 13 quake, broken garden wall, New Brighton Rd, nr Kingsford St cnr
15.06.11. June 13 quake damaged, liquefactioned housing, red zone, Kingsford St, nr New Brighton Rd
Locksley Ave 1.30pm: When I passed a team of uniformed cops digging grey mud from a driveway near Gayhurst Rd Bridge, I did a double-take by their cop car parked on the slumped, cracked road. Surely those cops, two days post June 13 Quake, had more important things to do than dig mud, at taxpayers' expense? (Locksley Ave would soon be red zoned by CERA, everyone would have to leave).
River Rd: Also damaged, slumped. Beyond Sept 4 Darfield Quake trashed, Medway St Footbridge, River Rd was closed, with orange, plastic, road cones, so I detoured back to Stanmore Rd via Medway St.
That night CERA minister Brownlee, wearing his red, CERA jacket, appeared on TV Close up, trying to reassure irate Cantabrians that it was again OK to endure unbearable earthquakes & aftershocks, that it was again OK to dig themselves, houses, possessions from quakemire, while he & flunkeys sniffed through slow geotech reports, deciding which houses would be liveable or not, which houses would be condemned, which citizens would be told to leave & rebuild elsewhere & how much money they would be offered by NZ National govt. Brownlee had more than 9 months since the Sept 4 Darfield Quake to make a plan. Why did NZ National govt take so long?
Fri 17.06.11. M4.4 aftershock woke us 6.37am. Depth 5km, 10km SE of Christchurch (GeoNet). There were many SE Christchurch aftershocks since Mon June 13 Quake. More M4.4 & M4.5 aftershocks rattled us that afternoon, the latter rumbling & shaking my computer while I captioned blog pics.
Weekend Press, June 18-19, reported the number of quakes & big aftershocks since Sept 4 Darfield Quake:
"Magnitude ... Numbers
M7 + .............. 1
M6.0 - M6.5 ...... 6
M5.5 - M6.0 ...... 5
M5.0 - M5.5 ...... 19
M4.5 - M5.0 ...... 56
M4.0 - M4-5 ..... 150"
So far, in 9+ months we'd survived 237 quakes, M4.0 - M7.1, excluding lesser magnitude quakes, totalling: "7350 quakes and counting."
18.06.11. Facebook comment to friends: "Christchurch was built on swampland, Avon & Heathcote tidal rivers meandering to the Pacific. Quakes are reverting CBD & E suburbs to swampland. We live in a drier W suburb [Burnside] with minor streams, no swamps, lagoons or estuaries, hence less liquefaction damage, only shaking".
Post quakes, "new" Christchurch would develop south-westwards, inland away from riverside & coastal suburbs: 2013. There would be several housing developments W of Christchurch CBD in Halswell & Rolleston where the new S freeway would evolve. 2023. Halswell would be the fastest growing suburb, masses of new housing, revamped New World supermarket, new Library, same two primary schools, but no new high school!
On Canterbury Plain, our Christchurch crustal quakes were caused by shallow, crustal shearing faults on land & Pacific, close to & on Port Hills & Banks Peninsula (extinct volcanoes). The Alpine Fault between Pacific & Australian plates was about 100km inland. Most of the South Island, on the Pacific plate, was moving SW past the N moving Australian plate.
Tue 21.06.11. Wet, wintery night. M5.4 quake, 10km SW of Christchurch, 8km depth, 10.34pm (GeoNet). Roared past like an express train, cut our Burnside power for half an hour. Scurried for torches & candles again. Electric heaters off, it got very cold, our shabby rental had no fireplace, nor heat pump.
Thur 23.06.11. After geotech reports, PM Key & Brownlee announced the division of Christchurch into red, orange, green, white zones, according to the state of quaked land & a plan for NZ National govt & insurance quake payouts. Anyone could check zoning on the Landcheck website. Red zone land would be abandoned, too damaged by quakes & too expensive to repair. Orange & white zone lands were in limbo awaiting land reports (a CBD cop out). Green zone land could repair / rebuild.
Horseshoe Lake houses / land in Burwood I'd seen were declared red zone, included in 5 000 other red zone properties in swamp, riverside, estuary, lagoon areas in Christchurch. Avonside Dr, Locksley Ave, Glenarm Tce, Seabreeze Cl, Waitaki St, Bexley Rd, bits of New Brighton Rd which I'd walked post quakes would be red zoned too, abandoned.
On Christchurch Fault, Christchurch CBD streets / bldgs checked out on Landcheck colour zones as white, green or orange zones! Not a cordoned red zone street or red zone address in Christchurch CBD in Landcheck, yet the CBD would be NZDF cordoned for 28 months post 22.02.11 quake, citizens banned, except for the favoured few. CERA demolitions would continue in the red zone CBD behind steel mesh fence cordons. If land reports on which Landcheck was based were valid, giving so many CBD street addresses as orange, green or white zones, that showed how many crap bldgs were still in the CBD, as so many bldgs in Christchurch CBD were destroyed by the Sept 4, Dec 26, Feb 22 & June 13 Quakes.
Shocking that 2 "new" Christchurch faults were under Christchurch CBD, causing CBD damage during the Boxing Day Quake, especially to Cashel Mall. But Council would write a draft plan to rebuild a new CBD on quake trashed, swampy CBD land! (Never mind CERA's later Blueprint wish list for the CBD, based on Council's draft plan). Daft Council had asked citizens for their rebuild ideas & used a Danish architect to preach how to rebuild, Denmark style.
Why were there so many rotten, quake-unsafe, business bldgs in Christchurch CBD before the 2010-2011 quakes?
July 2012: A year later, CERA / NZ National govt still hadn't completed zoning of residential properties on the Port Hills, 166 white zone properties still had to be rezoned red or green. By that time many citizens were annoyed by CERA's land zonings. Brownlee's public excuses, over many months, about needing time for geotech engineers & modelling studies to sort out land zonings had worn thin. (TV ONE/NEWS).
London St: Despite Leah's modern Jean Seabrook Memorial School, Richmond, being on the edge of the CBD, close to the Avon River & badly liquefactioned by the Feb 22 Killer Quake & June 13 Quake, the school was green zoned. Our Heath St, rental house in Burnside, no liquefaction at all, was also green zoned. How on earth did zoners green zone bldgs? (Only later would CERA concoct Technical Category, TC1, TC2, TC3 green zoning based on the severity of land damages).
28.06.11. June 13 quake, sandbagging by Horseshoe Lake outlet, Avon River, New Brighton Rd
28.06.11. June 13 quake, liquefactioned bus stop, Horseshoe Lake outlet by Avon River, New Brighton Rd
28.06.11. June 13 quake, orange, Hi-Vis vested, workman operating sucker truck in liquefactioned carpark, Horseshoe Lake outlet, New Brighton Rd
28.06.11. June 13 quake, workmen sucking sludge from Horseshoe Lake outlet, New Brighton Rd
28.06.11. June 13 quake, orange, Hi-Vis vested, workman by Horseshoe Lake outlet, pump house behind, New Brighton Rd
Tues 28.06.11. New Brighton Rd: I parked my car by Horseshoe Lake pump-house outlet into Avon River by Kerrs Reach. After several quakes, New Brighton Rd was still quakemired, sunk in places, lumpy, bumpy. Opp the pump-house, Avon River bank was built up with white plastic sandbags forming a small stopbank.
28.06.11. Orange, plastic, road cone cordon. June 13 quake, orange, Hi-Vis vested, workman, liquefactioned New Brighton Rd by Horseshoe Lake outlet bridge, Avon River
Two orange, Hi-Vis vested workmen by the road bridge pulled a yellow, plastic pipe through outlet water, sucking sludge from the water. A sewage, sucker truck stood in the liquefactioned carpark, an orange, Hi-Vis vested workman operating truck suction. Nearby ghost houses along New Brighton Rd were abandoned.
28.06.11. June 13 quake damaged house, New Brighton Rd. Houses along the road were damaged in previous quakes too
*Trekked Cumberland St, Avalon St, Stanmore Rd, Broomfield Tce, Kingsford St, Alice St, Queensbury St, New Brighton Rd. 157 snaps.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
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