08.06.11. Feb 22 quake damaged garage & house, Manchester St, nr Salisbury St crossing
Colombo St, former red-zone, which was opened a bit near Christchurch Town Hall & Kilmore St going to Victoria St. I'd already trekked Peterborough St, which joined the two bits of opened, fence-cordoned, red- zone I wanted to see.
08.06.11. Quake damaged houses, Manchester St, nr Peterborough St crossing
08.06.11. Fallen fence cordon. Post Feb 22 quake demolition site & Sept 4 & Feb 22 quake damaged housing, Manchester St / Peterborough St. The housing would be demolished post June 13 quake
08.06.11. Quake trashed house, Manchester St / Peterborough St. The house would be demolished post June 13 quake
08.06.11. Post Feb 22 quake demolition site, Manchester St / Peterborough St
During the former National State-of-Emergency, Civil Defence made broken-buildings safe. Later CERA would make broken-buildings safe, either by part-demolition or full-demolition, then CERA opened bits of the red-zone, by reducing cordons, from the Four Avenues inwards to the city-centre, for people to safely view & grieve. I'd already seen CTV part-demolished ruin in the red zone, where 115 people died. It was time to see where 18 people died at collapsed PGC multi-storey in the red-zone, Cambridge Tce.
08.06.11. EXTREME DANGER KEEP OUT. Feb 22 quake, red zone, steel mesh fence cordon, Manchester St / Kilmore St
08.06.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Sept 4 & Feb 22 quake damaged bldgs, incl part demolished Repertory Theatre right, red zone, Kilmore St. Repertory Theatre would be demolished
08.06.11. Feb 22 quake, USAR / TF graffiti on business door, red zone, Kilmore St / Manchester St. C meant Clear, no bodies. The bldg would be demolished.
Manchester St: I snapped ruins & demolition-sites I'd already seen between Salisbury St & Peterborough St, where the steel-mesh-fence-cordon had shrunk into the CBD red-zone, down to Avon River.
Taiwan USAR / TF graffiti was spray-painted on business-buildings & footpaths. USAR / TF teams called themselves Task Force, TF, but I preferred the abbreviation USAR, more descriptive of their job, Urban Search & Rescue.
08.06.11. Feb 22 quake, liquefactioned, red stickered, St Luke's Close, red zone, Manchester St
08.06.11. White, plastic tape, steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake, red stickered St Luke's Cl & quake trashed St Luke's Anglican Church, red zone, Manchester St. St Lukes would be demolished post June 13 quake
08.06.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Sept 4 quake damaged, Feb 22 quake trashed St Luke's Anglican Church, red zone, Manchester St / Kilmore St. St Lukes would be demolished post June 13 quake
08.06.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Post Feb 22 quake, house demolition site, opp St Luke's Anglican Church, red zone, Manchester St
08.06.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Wooden bell tower, Sept 4 quake damaged, Feb 22 quake trashed St Luke's Anglican Church, red zone, Manchester St / Kilmore St. St Lukes would be demolished post June 13 quake. The white, wooden bell tower would survive the quakes
08.06.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Sept 4 quake damaged, Feb 22 quake trashed St Luke's Anglican Church, red zone, Manchester St / Kilmore St. St Lukes would be demolished post June 13 quake
08.06.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Sept 4 quake damaged, Feb 22 quake trashed bldgs, red zone, seen from St Luke's, Manchester St / Kilmore St. The trashed roadside bldgs & BNZ high rise behind would be demolished
Manchester St / Kilmore St crossing: By the steel-mesh-fence-cordon, I snapped St Luke's Anglican Church ruin, damaged by the 4 September 2010 Quake, ruined by the 22 February 2011 Quake. Greystone-gables fell in the 4 September 2010 Quake, but the 22 February 2011 Quake shook big holes in the nave's greystone-walls & chomped big chunks off chancel & apse greystone-walls, like a bomb-strike. The roof held up, due to strong wooden-arches. St Luke's would be demolished post 13 June 2011 Quake. Only the wooden bell-tower, painted white, would survive the quakes.
08.06.11. Manchester St view, Feb 22 quake deserted Kilmore St, looking E towards Fire Service cordon, red zone
08.06.11. Feb 22 quake, blue portaloo, yellow, Hi-Vis vested, EQC inspector, red zone, Kilmore St
08.06.11. Feb 22 quake, liquefactioned Cancer Society Centre, red zone, Manchester St
Manchester St / Kilmore St: No traffic. Kilmore St was steel-mesh-fence-cordoned, Town Hall side. Eastwards, on the Fire Service building side, two EQC-inspectors wearing yellow Hi-Vis vests entered a Kilmore St house.
Manchester St: Cancer Society Centre ruin was liquefactioned: plastic-daffodils were strewn on a muddy-floor inside, a concrete-curb was bent, mud on the footpath & by the front-wall & glass-doors.
08.06.11. White, plastic tape, steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake, Manchester St neighbouring bldgs to the PGC demolished bldg, red zone. Front bldg would be demolished
Manchester St: Across the road, I snapped two buildings damaged by the 4 September 2010 Quake, ruined by the 22 February 2011 Quake. A double steel-mesh-fence-cordon by Manchester St Bridge stopped access to the red-zone-CBD's high-rise ruins, where no birds sang.
EXTREME DANGER KEEP OUT Manchester St / Cambridge Tce: Through the double steel-mesh-fence-cordons I saw PGC demolition-site: sanitized flattened-rubble across Cambridge Tce from Retour Restaurant ruin. Two orange, Hi-Vis vested workmen slouched on PGC rubble. No respect for the dead.
08.06.11. EXTREME DANGER KEEP OUT. Steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake, PGC bldg demolition site, red zone, Manchester St / Cambridge Tce. 18 people died when the PGC bldg collapsed. All bldgs in the pic, incl Ernst & Young centre, would be demolished
Christchurch's greystone-churches & red-brick-churches fell apart in quakes. The Press commentators talked of "Mother Nature" being responsible for quakes, thus excusing planners, surveyors, architects, engineers, builders, any human mistakes buried under red-zone demolition- rubble. There was nothing "Mother Nature" nurturing about people dying in the 22 February 2011 Quake!
08.06.11. Feb 22 quake damaged Theosophy bldg, red zone, Cambridge Tce. The bldg degenerated in later quakes & would be demolished
Cambridge Tce: Deserted Avon River bank. I snapped Theosophy ruin & Oxford Tce Baptist Church ruin, damaged by the 4 September 2010 Quake, ruined by the 22 February 2011 Quake, across Avon River. Theosophy building would be demolished. On the red-zone river-bank, Oxford Tce side, high-rise-ruins loomed on the steel-mesh-fence-cordoned riverside. Centennial Pool ruin: we'd swam there pre-quakes. Centennial Pool would be demolished for the Margaret Mahy Family Playground.
08.06.11. Feb 22 quake demolition site, red zone, Peterborough St / Colombo St
08.06.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake, demolition sites, isolated bldg, red zone, Colombo St, between Peterborough St & Kilmore St crossings
08.06.11. Feb 22 quake, USAR / TF graffiti on business bldg, red zone, Colombo St, between Peterborough St & Kilmore St crossings
08.06.11. Feb 22 quake demolition site & quake trashed brick bldg, red zone, Colombo St, between Peterborough St & Kilmore St crossings. The trashed bldg would be demolished
I trekked Peterborough St to Colombo St, on one cnr an empty demolition site.
Colombo St: Two more bare demolition-sites on both Kilmore St corners. East side Colombo St: 22 February 2011 Quake's Taiwan & NZ USAR / TF graffiti on three ruined-businesses: Kwality; Thai Smile Restaurant; The City Club. The ruin would be demolished. Colombo St, eastwards beyond a demolition site, a two-storey ruin. It would be demolished post 13 June 2011 Quake.
West side Colombo St: Behind a steel-mesh-fence-cordon, NSW USAR / TF graffiti on a two-storey ruin, soon demolished. Between two demolition-sites, behind a steel-mesh-fence-cordon, a small block of ruined-shops on Colombo St, between Peterborough St & Kilmore St: DUSTY OLD THINGS ANTIQUES; FIBRE ZONE; WHISKY GALORE; THE COOK SHOP; MR SUSHI. The shops would be demolished post 13 June 2011 Quake. They were a microcosm of businesses destroyed in the quakes. WHISKY GALORE would be rebuilt on Colombo St.
08.06.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake, block of 5 small shops isolated by quake demolition sites, red zone Colombo St, between Peterborough St & Kilmore St crossings. The 5 shops would be demolished post June 13 quake
08.06.11. Feb 22 quake demolition site, red zone, Kilmore St / Colombo St
Colombo St / Kilmore St crossing: The steel-mesh-fence-cordon on Colombo St in the middle of the road, made Colombo St one-way to Kilmore St, where the steel-mesh-fence-cordon curved towards Town Hall entrance on Kilmore St. Eastwards towards Manchester St, Kilmore St was still steel-mesh-fence-cordoned red-zone.
Colombo St: Beyond the steel-mesh-fence-cordon, looking towards Avon River to Christ Church Cathedral ruin, the red-zone was dead.
08.06.11. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake, red zone cordon, Kilmore St / Colombo St crossing. All bldgs in the pic would be demolished
08.06.11. Feb 22 quake, cordon fence view, red zone high rises beyond Avon River, Colombo St / Kilmore St crossing. BNZ left & PWC right would be demolished for the new RC Cathedral precinct. All bldgs in the pic would be demolished
08.06.11. Feb 22 quake, Colombo St red zone view, high rises across Avon River towards quake trashed Christ Church Cathedral. Copthorne Hotel middle would be demolished. Forsyth Barr beyond would be repaired as Crowne Plaza Hotel
Five days later, the 13 June 2011 Quake, M6.3, would trash Christ Church Cathedral again, the western rose-window was smashed into rubble, another kaput greystone-church. So much for Mother Nature! (In future, Heritage-hailers' court-cases would obstruct Christ Church Cathedral's demolition, or rebuild, or restoration for years!)
08.06.11. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake demolition site view, quake damaged Christchurch Town Hall, red zone, Colombo St / Kilmore St
Kilmore St: Town Hall entrance was protected by a MAINZEAL porta-cabin construction-office & shipping-containers. Orange & yellow, Hi-vis vested workmen, with thousand-yard-stares slouched behind Town Hall glass-doors. After years of Council dithering, only in 2015 would Council decide to restore Town Hall at a cost of $127.5 million. (The Press 11.06.15).
08.06.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake damaged Christchurch Town Hall entrance, red zone, Kilmore St
08.06.11. Feb 22 quake, red zone, steel mesh fence cordon & red skips by quake damaged Town Hall, Kilmore St. Quake trashed Crowne Plaza Hotel & Copthorne Hotel beyond, would be demolished. Town Hall would be repaired
08.06.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake, blue portaloo & shipping container by quake damaged Christchurch Town Hall, red zone, Kilmore St
08.06.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake, airbridge between quake damaged Christchurch Town Hall & Crowne Plaza Hotel, red zone, Kilmore St. The airbridge & Crowne Plaza Hotel would be demolished
08.06.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake damaged Crowne Plaza Hotel & Copthorne Hotel, red zone, Kilmore St. Both hotels would be demolished
08.06.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake damaged, boarded Crowne Plaza Hotel, red zone, Kilmore St, seen from Victoria St cnr. Crowne Plaza Hotel would be demolished
The Weekend Press June 11-12 reported that Town Hall & Convention Centre were so damaged they wouldn't be opened again for two & a half years, early 2014 at least. Quakes caused city-heart infarction: Christ Church Cathedral, Town Hall, Convention Centre, Arts Centre, Art Gallery, businesses, hotels, restaurants, pubs, all ruined. Red-zone-CBD businesses relocated to suburbs, pitted against slow EQC & slow insurers, dithering Council, vampire contractors & honeymooning CERA.
08.06.11. Feb 22 quake, USAR / TF graffiti, boarded Golder Associates, red zone, Kilmore St
08.06.11. Feb 22 quake, USAR / TF graffiti opp Town Hall, red zone, Kilmore St. CLEAR meant no bodies
Kilmore St: The red-zone steel-mesh-fence-cordon continued past Crowne Plaza hotel ghost, windows-boarded. Opposite Town Hall ghost, businesses were closed. NZ Response Team & NSW USAR / TF graffiti was spray-painted on windows & walls, some windows broken or boarded.
Post 22 February 2011 Quake, NZ volunteer Response Teams, NZRT, came from all over NZ. Response Teams & professional USAR / TF teams were trained in Urban Search & Rescue. USAR / TF teams came from all over the world to rescue survivors & injured & search for bodies. Most international teams arrived too late to save survivors, but like Response Teams they checked buildings.
NZ USAR / TF teams did most of the lifesaving work, with dodgy coordination between cops & fire-service managements. Although quicker off the mark, local Response Teams were dogs-bodies, doing more escort work & little Search & Rescue. Their lifesaving skills were poorly managed: The later Royal Commission of Inquiry would show poor Civil Defence coordination amongst USAR / TF teams & Response Teams, due to poor cops & fire-service management.
Looking at NZRT & USAR / TF dates & times on bldgs, showed that NZRT & USAR / TF teams checked each others' search work, sometimes days apart.
Example graffiti on Golder Associates building, Kilmore St, opposite Town Hall:
NZRT2
24 FEB
0148
NSW TF
28/2
0430
At Golder Associates, three people, wearing yellow-plastic-hard-hats, scurried in & out of the building, salvaging business-records & dumping them in an Automobile Association car.
08.06.11. DANGER KEEP OUT. Steel mesh fence cordon. Red stickered, Feb 22 quake trashed, Christchurch Convention Centre, red zone, Kilmore St. Christchurch Convention Centre would be demolished post June 13 quake
08.06.11. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake sinkholes, Christchurch Convention Centre, red zone, Kilmore St
Opposite Town Hall ghost, the Convention Centre ghost: quakemired footpath, two steel-mesh-fence-cordoned sinkholes beneath the airbridge, between Convention Centre & Town Hall. Convention Centre & airbridge would be demolished post 13 June 2011 Quake.
08.06.11. UNSTABLE WALL. Steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake, red zone, Kilmore St. Quake trashed Copthorne Hotel left, would be demolished
08.06.11. Feb 22 quake, liquefactioned business, red zone, Kilmore St
08.06.11. Feb 22 quake damaged Riverlands House, red zone, Kilmore St / Victoria St. Riverlands House would be demolished post June 13 quake
Except for some walkers, tourists & photographers, Manchester St, Peterborough St, Colombo St, Kilmore St & Victoria St by Christchurch Casino were deserted. During my three hour trek through the red-zone few cars passed.
08.06.11. Feb 22 quake, Manchester St view, 2 EQC inspectors, wearing yellow, Hi-Vis vests by a blue portaloo, red zone, Kilmore St
Manchester St again: The two EQC inspectors, wearing yellow Hi-Vis vests, emerged from the house I'd seen them entering. Well paid, ($100/hr) no one bothering them in the red-zone.
Manchester St Bridge: At the double steel mesh-fence-cordon, people stared at the PGC demolition-site. People staring through fence- cordons at ruins & demolitions was common in Christchurch. Two SUVs U-turned, bumping back up Manchester St.
Four months post 22 February 2011 Quake, SUVs & 4x4s were the best vehicles to drive Christchurch's patched-roads. Our cars were wearing out, dodging potholes & bumps: Sullivan Ave, Richardson Tce, Oxley Ave, Forfar St, Madras St, Bealey Ave, Wairakei Rd... Roads I often drove were dangerous, needing repairs, a fraction of needed road-repairs.
The Star 08.06.11 quoted mayor Parker: "Forty five percent of the city's infrastructure including sewerage systems, water supplies, roads and parks were extensively damaged in the earthquake and need to be replaced. While much of this is being paid by insurance and Government subsidies, there is still a shortfall..."
SCIRT, Stronger Christchurch Infrastructure Recovery Team, would later be formed to repair Christchurch infrastructure. SCIRT included seconded Council staff & contractors
Thursday 09.06.11. I trekked the northern red-zone again: Manchester St had new road-markings on new tarseal. Yesterday I'd seen road-workers marking Manchester St with string. Colombo St / Kilmore St: Orange Hi-Vis vested workmen laid asphalt on the foootpath, opposite fence-cordoned Town Hall. I passed a ponytailed woman hurrying past Town Hall, horror on her face.
09.06.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Sept 4 quake damaged, Feb 22 quake trashed Knox Presbyterian Church, red zone, Bealey Ave / Victoria St. For many months post June 13 quake, Knox Church weathered, an eyesore & dangerous. 2014 Knox Church would be restored with copper wall panels
Along red zone, ghost zone Manchester St, Cambridge Tce, Peterborough St, Colombo St, Kilmore St, Victoria St, there were many ghosts & demolition sites.
Victoria St / Bealey Ave: Steel-mesh-fence-cordoned Knox Presbyterian Church ruin: gaping-holes through brick nave-walls, nine months since ruining by the 4 September 2010 Quake & 22 February 2011 Quake. Other ruins on Victoria St were already demolished. Knox Church would weather, an eyesore & dangerous, for more than two years. Only in October 2013 would foundation-repairs & rebuild begin on Knox Church. In 2014 Knox Church would be restored with copper wall-panels.
10.06.11. Feb 22 quake, red zone, Fitzgerald Ave / Cambridge Tce
10.06.11. Feb 22 quake, grey & blue portaloos, red zone, Cambridge Tce / Churchill St
10.06.11. Feb 22 quake liquefactioned driveway, red zone, Cambridge Tce / Churchill St
Friday 10.06.11. Trekking the red-zone northen-cordons again, beside Avon River, I trekked Cambridge Tce to coolpix Oxford Tce Baptist Church ruin, which I'd glimpsed across sewage-polluted Avon River two days before.
Board behind the steel-mesh-fence-cordon:
OUR BUILDING IS CRACKED
THE CHURCH IS FINE!
10.06.11. Feb 22 quake, red zone Cambridge Tce view, sewage polluted Avon River & Oxford Tce. Riverbanks collapsed by lateral spreading & a new island formed by liquefaction mud
On another trek along Chester St, I'd coolpixed the back of Oxford Tce Baptist Church, which was ruined in the 4 September 2011 Quake & 22 February 2011 Quake, its Neo-Classic-facade obliterated. Oxford Tce Baptist Church would be demolished post 13 June 2011 Quake & rebuilt, modern style.
10.06.11. Feb 22 quake cracks & slumping of Avon River bank, red zone, Cambridge Tce. Slumping & cracks were due to lateral spreading
Early days, post 22 February 2011 Quake, during the National State-of-Emergency, Fitzgerald Ave / Cambridge Tce was guarded by NZDF- soldiers, who were now gone. Cambridge Tce houses, overlooking Avon River, were yellow-stickered, some houses inhabited, some ruins.
10.06.11. Black plastic covering a wall, Feb 22 quake damaged house, red zone, Cambridge Tce
Cambridge Tce: Beside Avon River, I trekked along the cracked & slumped footpath. Some cracks were about two metres deep, cracking & slumping was due to lateral-spreading.
10.06.11. Feb 22 quake cracked pavement, Avon River, red zone, Cambridge Tce
Cambridge Tce by Barbadoes St Cemetery: A greystone retaining-wall was collapsed for about 100 metres along the footpath. As it was a rainy morning, cemetery-mud from settler-graves & quakemire trickled across Cambridge Tce into sewage-polluted Avon River. While splashing through muddy-puddles, what settler-remains was I squelching? I snapped toppled settler-gravestones & a grey-granite, memorial-plaque on an intact bit of the greystone-wall:
10.06.11. Feb 22 quake liquefactioned cnr of Barbadoes St cemetery, red zone, Cambridge Tce
10.06.11. Feb 22 quake damage to red zone Cambridge Tce & Barbadoes St Cemetery
TO THE GLORY OF GOD
AND IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF
THE EARLY SETTLERS OF CANTERBURY
WHO LIE WITHIN THESE WALLS
10.06.11. Feb 22 quake damaged Barbadoes St Cemetery retaining wall, red zone, Cambridge Tce
10.06.11. Sept 4 & Feb 22 quake damaged grave stones, Barbadoes St Cemetery, red zone, Cambridge Tce
I trekked past tilted Maori pous on Avon River bank. (2022. The pous had been dismantled, just tilted plinths left). Across Barbadoes St, I passed a house demolition-site, already weedy. Beyond Barbadoes St, I trekked over cracks on the footpath, past the bottom of Salisbury St & Peterborough St, some houses inhabited, some ruins.
10.06.11. Feb 22 quake, Maori pous, red zone, Barbadoes St / Cambridge Tce
10.06.11. Feb 22 quake, red zone Cambridge Tce view, sewage polluted Avon River & Kilmore St Fire Service bldg, quake damaged
By The Bricks I looked across Avon River at the ruined Fire Service building on Kilmore St, still with a makeshift, blue-tarp-guard-hut in front. A fire engine was parked by the plastic-tunnel-house which cordoned Kilmore St. Otherwise, Kilmore St was lifeless.
10.06.11. DO NOT ENTER. Steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake red zone, Kilmore St / Madras St Bridge by USA Sept 11 Memorial. The Poplars right would be demolished post June 13 quake
10.06.11. NO ENTRY. Feb 22 quake, red zone, steel mesh fence cordon, E view, Kilmore St towards Fire Service cordon
10.06.11. Feb 22 quake, red zone, W view, Kilmore St to Manchester St cordon & beyond to Town Hall area
10.06.11. Feb 22 quake, red zone, Madras St Bridge view, sewage polluted Avon River. Oxford Tce left, Cambridge Tce right
10.06.11. Feb 22 quake, red zone, Madras St Bridge view, USA Sept 11 Memorial
10.06.11. Feb 22 quake, red zone, steel mesh fence cordon view, high rises to Latimer Sq, Madras St / Oxford Tce checkpoint. The high rises would be demolished
10.06.11. Orange, plastic, road cones, steel mesh fence cordon. Feb 22 quake, red zone, Madras St / Oxford Tce checkpoint. Behind Edmonds clock tower (quakes survivor) The Poplars would be demolished post June 13 quake
Kilmore St / Madras St Bridge: I crossed by the USA's 11 September Memorial & snapped Oxford Tce Baptist Church ruin in the red-zone.
Madras St / Oxford Tce crossing: Cops & NZDF-soldiers check-pointed south-bound vehicles into the red-zone-CBD towards Latimer Sq. CERA would continue variable military-checkpoints at red-zone cordon-fencing for another two years.
The Poplars multi-storey ruin was tilted, then demolished post 13 June 2011 Quake. Red-zone high-rises were as dead as flattened gravestones I'd passed at Barbadoes St Cemetery. Northwards, orange-plastic-road-cone-cordoned Madras St was dead. Westwards, Kilmore St, mostly steel-mesh-fence-cordoned to the Town Hall was dead.
10.06.11. Steel mesh fence cordon. Sept 4 quake damaged, Feb 22 quake trashed Oxford Tce Baptist Church, seen from Madras St, red zone checkpoint. Oxford Tce Baptist Church would be demolished post June 13 quake & rebuilt
On my drive back to Burnside, I stopped on Colombo St to snap more ruins near Salisbury St crossing, where an earlier NZDF-soldier checkpoint was in the red-zone, during the National State-of-Emergency. Two-storey ghost-housing was boarded up. QLD USAR / TF graffiti was on doors & fences. A so-called heritage-house was dead, wooden turret on the ground, roofing gone, rafters exposed to a grey- sky. Colombo house-ruins would all be demolished. Where did all the people go?
10.06.11. Sept 4 quake damaged, Feb 22 quake trashed, red zone, Colombo St housing. The houses would be demolished
*Trekked Manchester St, Cambridge Tce, Colombo St, Kilmore St, Bealey Ave, Madras St. 169 snaps.
Coda:
Heath St: Monday 13 June 2011. 1.00pm, M5.6 quake, 11km depth, 10km east of Christchurch. Shook our nectarine tree while I pruned. Spooked our cat on the garden-fence. Spilt some of our emergency-water cache in our garage, which I'd stored in a wheelie-bin. Survival note: Don't fill wheelie-bins to the top with emergency-water. We also stored emergency-water in plastic-bottles & plastic-bags in our scullery & in a garage cupboard.
1.08pm, M4.4 quake, depth 11km, 10km SE Christchurch.
2.20pm, M6.3 quake, 9km depth, 10km SE of Christchurch (GeoNet). For some hours GeoNet recorded the June 13 Quake as M6, then upgraded it to M6.3, after consulting seismographs at various places.
Our house swayed, trees swayed while I stood braced in our back-doorway. I watched the seismic-wave undulate across my vision & felt it moving beneath my feet from east to west, like an ocean swell below a boat, deep rumbling underfoot. Our wooden Burnside house on piles was OK, once again.
London St: Leah's school was liquefactioned again, mud-boils & flooding as in the 22 February 2011 Quake. The 13 June 2011 Quake, M6.3, threw Leah around in the carpark, hurting her back. She drove home to Burnside in gridlock traffic, some traffic-lights not working.
One News, 6pm: Liquefactioned Christchurch eastern suburbs.
Liquefactioned Merivale & Ferry Rd area.
47 000 customers without power (20 000 by 10.30pm news).
Telecom recommended customers text to obviate landline jams.
Shop building collapsed, Stanmore Rd / Worcester St (near Leah's school).
Empty buildings collapsed in CBD-red-zone.
No fatalities.
Pic of dust-cloud over Christchurch.
Pic of dust-cloud over Scarborough.
Rockfalls at Shag Rock, Sumner, Boulder Bay.
Pages Rd Bridge, Bridge St Bridge, Anzac Bridge, Waimakariri Bridge closed.
Schools closed until damage-checked & safety-checked.
Usually I did weekly shopping at Northlands Pak 'n Save on Monday afternoons. Luckily I did it on Monday morning for the first time in months. Last place I wanted to be during a quake was Pak 'n Save, palleted top-shelves looming. The dark undercover-parking spooked me at the best of times, tons of loose-concrete in the roof / floor panels above.
Couple of months later I would decide not to shop at Northlands Mall anymore. I disliked many cracks seen in the undercover parking: concrete- columns, concrete-roof-beams & concrete-wall-slabs, repaired with epoxy-glue. I thought epoxy-glue would tear apart in the next big quake. Northlands Mall undercover-parking concrete wasn't the only post-quake concrete-slab buildings I saw repaired with epoxy-glue.
13 June 2011 Quake: Widespread quakemire in riverine, estuarine, lake, lagoon areas, showed Christchurch reverting to swampland.
The 13 June 2011 Quake, M6.3, epicentre near Sumner: a 30m wide chunk of Whitewash Head cliffs at the end of Scarborough collapsed into the Pacific. Destructive energies of the 13 June 2011 Quake was horizontal instead of vertical, hence the ocean-wave-like feel.
Seismologists didn't know much about Christchurch quakes, as they based their knowledge on plate-boundary Californian San Andreas Fault & NZ Alpine Fault data, so learned ad hoc from each new, shallow, crustal-fault quake in & around Christchurch. (The Press 15.06.11). Seismologists just recorded quakes on their seismographs & were useless at quake-predictions.
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
Received an email from Auckland with positive feedback about blog content.
ReplyDeleteexcellent shots...
ReplyDeleteAN area I knew so well - knowing it has gone and seeing these are so different - I feel a sense of loss all over again.
I have to grieve - my partner worked for vbase and my son worked at Poplars Hotel...
end of an era
more to accept
doesnt get any easier with time....so far anyway - i am not sure i have even grieved for it yet..
Grieving comes in waves for me Fi, sometimes catches up with me when I wander past a broken bldg, sometimes while thinking about it later, not easy...
ReplyDelete