Leah was teaching at her London St school, near Christchurch CBD & Avon River, when the Feb 22 Killer Quake struck & when the June 13 Quake struck. Both quakes shook her school, threw furniture & items around in classrooms & offices & liquefactioned school grounds: grey mud flooding the playground & carpark, oozing though concrete at the front door & backyard sandpit area.
Leah was thrown about, hurt in the June 13 Quake. In both quakes, she stayed calm, pacifying kids, waiting hours in the mud-oozing, school carpark, during thumping aftershocks, for anxious parents to fetch their kids.
21.11.11. Quake trashed, steel mesh fence cordoned Southern Community Laboratories for Blood Tests, Durham St Nth. The Blood Laboratories would be demolished
Post quakes Leah lost weight, quickly, got her slim, youthful figure again. She changed yoga classes (disliked a new teacher's exercises) & joined a new yoga class in a nun's bldg, next door to Southern Community Laboratories, a Blood Tests, 2-3 storey bldg, Durham St Nth, behind Southern Cross Hospital.
Although I was fit, during quake years, 2010-2013, my blood pressure shot up, stayed high. My profound deafness: my Widex digital hearing aid microphone didn't enable me to hear quakes, so my quake experiences were mostly silent! I felt quake vibrations & shaking, but never heard quakes. I bet there was many ongoing mental & physical damages to Cantabrians post quakes, due to damaged sports facilities. Examples: Port Hills recreational areas were banned post quakes, due to rockfall danger. Several Council swimming pools were closed due to damages, like Centennial Pool. Never mind quake wreckage of sports facilities like AMI Stadium, QE11 Park athletics stadium, Porritt Park hockey stadium, Wilding Park tennis courts, Kerrs Reach rowing club houses.
21.11.11. Quake trashed, steel mesh fence cordoned Southern Community Laboratories for Blood Tests, Durham St Nth. The Blood Laboratories would be demolished
What aggravated Leahs' quake anxiety (& kids' & other staffs' anxieties) was pounding by diggers, all day, while demolishing sections of Richmond Working Men's Club, opp the school, London St / Stanmore Rd. Digger pounding went on for weeks, worse than aftershocks.
Two years later, Nov 2013 pounding would continue, as the Club was demolished intermittently, section by section, months between demolitions. By that time, Leah had the horrors, looking for teaching elsewhere.
21.11.11. Quake trashed, steel mesh fence cordoned Southern Community Laboratories for Blood Tests, Durham St Nth. The Blood Laboratories would be demolished
On London St or Pavitt St, whenever heavy vehicles drove past, the school shook, like another quake. London St was a busy, connecting road, between busy Stanmore Rd & busy Bealey Ave. For months post quakes, London St was in a rotten state of repair, lumpy, bumpy by the school, which aggravated daily school shakings. Only a year later, Oct 2012, would SCIRT replace sewage pipes in London St, causing traffic detours & more damage to London St.
21.11.11. Quake trashed Southern Community Laboratories, Durham St Nth. The Blood Laboratories would be demolished
Durham St Nth: Late Mon afternoon 21.11.11, after Leah finished teaching, I drove her to her yoga class. Next door, Southern Community Laboratories, old, brick & concrete bldg, was trashed, steel mesh fence cordoned, for months. Roof wall sign: BLOOD TESTS. Over the years, our family had blood tests done in the labs, so knew the 3 storey, steel mesh fence cordoned ghost.
21.11.11. Quake trashed Southern Community Laboratories, Durham St Nth. The Blood Laboratories would be demolished
While Leah did yoga, I snapped 3 sides of the steel mesh fence cordoned, multi-storey ghost. Quakes had peeled bricks off walls & cnrs, showing cracked, concrete skeleton beneath. Main doorways, trashed. Two concrete columns exposed, moved sideways in quakes. Windows smashed, cracks on brick cladding & concrete skeleton, 3 sides of the death-trap.
21.11.11. Quake trashed Southern Community Laboratories, Durham St Nth. The Blood Laboratories would be demolished
Pity CERA left Blood Tests ghost standing so long. Nearby ghosts were demolished months before: A 2 storey, old, brick dairy, Durham St Nth / Springfield Rd; a modern apartment block, Durham St Nth, where a car was crushed by the collapsed undercover carpark, when the bldg collapsed, Feb 22 Killer Quake.
Wed 23.11.11. Labour leader Goff in a recent TV debate said PM Key was a liar. Wed's TV debate: Goff whinged he had no time for dole-bludgers. As Labour leader, Goff was the most well paid dole-bludger in NZ. Funny how welfare states made dole-bludgers then despised them. (Later, Goff left Labour & became Auckland mayor).
Key would smile all the way to election day. Goff lost the election, after insulting beneficiaries. Pity Goff hadn't made jobs for those he despised. David Shearer would become Labour leader. Shearer didn't last. By Oct 2013, David Cunliffe would be the new Labour leader. Cunliffe also didn't last, after squabbling amongst Labour leaders, Cunliffe would be replaced in 2014 by Andrew Little, who would be replaced by Jacinda Ardern who would become Labour PM in 2017. She too wouldn't last.
06.01.12. Couple of weeks post 23.12.11 Xmas Quake Swarm, I would see the Blood Tests ghost again, trashed by the Xmas Quake Swarm: bricks fallen off N & W walls. That destruction sequence was repeated all over by quakes: more & more damages, quake after quake. Southern Community Laboratories would be demolished.
*Trekked Durham St Nth. 28 snaps.
Coda:
By 2017, Mary Potter Community houses would be built on demolished Southern Community Laboratories site. The hall where Leah did yoga during quake years would survive.
06.01.12. Bricks collapsed off N wall, Southern Community Laboratories, Durham St Nth, post 23.12.11 quake swarm. The Blood Laboratories would be demolished
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
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