Hot nor'wester, gritty, grey quakemire dust: I pitied those still living in ruined-houses by liquefactioned ruined-roads. Passing cars caused dust clouds. Not a City Care water-tanker nor contractor water-tanker in sight to lay dust in New Brighton dust bowl!
Nor'wester windblown, gritty, grey dust formed from dry quakemire, a mix of ancient alluvial sand & suburban waste-water from trashed sewage-pipes, water-pipes & drains.
CERA Landcheck website, land status:
Willryan Ave: 89 properties, 5 red-zone, 84 green-zone. I trekked the red-zone section.
Terrelle St: 27 properties, all red-zone.
Sandy Ave: 7 properties, 3 red-zone, 4 green-zone.
Wattle Dr: 50 properties, 26 red-zone, 24 green-zone.
Residential red-zone land was too expensive / difficult to fix & property owners had to leave. Why were red-zone homes built on swampland in the first place? Eastern suburbs: homes were built on sandy lands.
Wattle Dr: I parked near ruined-houses sinking into mud, gardens overgrown. Near New Brighton Rd, most Wattle Dr houses were abandoned. Beyond Freeville School, the closer I trekked to Travis Rd, there were more green-zone houses along Wattle Dr.
14.01.12. Liquefactioned Wattle Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Willryan Ave: Roadside, I saw tilted power-poles & green-portaloos. I passed more liquefactioned ruined-houses. I passed a fallen WORKS END THANK YOU sign & passed a FOOTPATH CLOSED sign to red-zone Terrelle St.
14.01.12. Liquefactioned Wattle Dr / Willryan Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
14.01.12. Portaloo & liquefactioned Willryan Ave, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Terrelle St: A grey-quakemired dusty mess. Roadside portaloos & green-plastic-sewage-tanks. Ruined-houses. Overgrown-gardens. A house demolition site: four abandoned sofas amongst weeds & two huge, liquefaction-boils. In the front yard, a yellow car, weed-smothered. Two unfriendly men, suspicious of me scuttled in their muddy, dusty gardens. I'd be suspicious of rubberneckers too, if I had to endure their strife.
14.01.12. Liquefactioned Terrelle St, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Sandy Ave: Apt road name. Three ruined-houses. Freeville School looked OK.
Wattle Dr: I didn't bother trekking to Travis Rd, as I was sweaty & gritty from grey liquefaction-dust. Towards Travis Rd, less liquefaction, less housing-damage.
14.01.12. Quake collapsed garage, Wattle Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Wattle Dr / Sandy Ave junction: A grey, sandy sinkhole, cordoned by orange-plastic-road-cones on the footpath which blocked entry to a liquefactioned-driveway.
14.01.12. Liquefactioned Wattle Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Wattle Dr: I trekked back to my car past red-zone ruined-houses, some tilted into mud in overgrown-gardens. Footpaths were grey-silted. Grey-sinkholes seen. Deep mud in driveways & on footpaths. I passed Atlantis St which I'd trekked days prior. I saw a big grey-sinkhole cordoned by orange-plastic-road-cones & a fence at the junction.
14.01.12. Liquefactioned Wattle Dr, post 23.12.11 quake swarm
Sunday 15.01.12. 2.47am, M5.0 quake, 9km depth, 10km E of Christchurch (GeoNet). Rumbled by, woke us.
*Trekked Wattle Dr, Willryan Ave, Terrelle St, Sandy Ave. 87 snaps.
Coda:
Near the end of 2012, the Ministry of Education (MoE) would cause strife by wanting to close & merge several Christchurch schools without consultation. Quakes were used as the excuse. Freeville School would merge with North New Brighton School. Central New Brighton School would merge with South Brighton School, thus reducing local schools from 4 to 2. The MoE was more destructive than quakes! Merges would cause public protests. CERA recovery?
Content & pics Copyright Mark JS Esslemont.
Wandering in belatedly to say my kids go to Freeville School and so I know these streets really well. It's so horrible seeing them like this and I feel for all the people I know who live in and with this :(
ReplyDeleteOn another note, the school looks okay but has had one unsafe building demolished already and will likely have another one too (the one you can see from Sandy Ave). On the plus side it's a great school and is still going strong despite the building problems, and with new ones replacing those we've lost :D
Thanks r. Good to hear the school's still going strong, despite setbacks. Hope it thrives after the rebuild.
DeleteThis is all horribly ironic now. Freeville school is still going strong, still an excellent school providing an excellent education, but unfortunately the MoE have decreed it will be lost in a merger. Lots of grief in the area now.
DeleteSad that Freeville School has to merge with North New Brighton School & that the MoE also merged Central New Brighton School with South Brighton School, thus reducing local schools from 4 to 2. The MoE was more destructive than the quakes.
ReplyDelete