Quake City

We had 13 days of rain during our 15 day trip. Only the last two days were sunny. These were spent in Christchurch - quake city! On September 4 2010 a strong earthquake struck Christchurch which caused considerable damage but no lives were lost. Then on February 22 2011, as the city was beginning to recover, another earthquake occurred. This one was devastating, causing massive damage and taking 182 lives.

It is a strange experience to be driving around a city and seeing where cracks in streets have been repaired, and driving over bumps and waves in the roads, and seeing empty allotments where houses have been demolished and other houses still surrounded by cyclone fencing, waiting to be repaired or abandoned. But city life bustles on. There is plenty of traffic and human activity.

The randomness of the damage in the suburbs is puzzling, but it is in the city centre that the incredible impact is most evident, as well as the quirky sense of quake humour and the positive vibe of recovery that Christchurchians have developed can be seen.

When we rode the historic tram, the driver said they have had so many aftershocks, thousands, than now they don't get out of bed for anything unless it over a 4 on the rickter scale. Between September 4 2010 and May 31 2011, there were 6016 earthquakes detected in the region around Christchurch. 247 of these exceeded magnitude 4. While we were returning our motorhome on the Friday, there was one of 4.2 just west of the city. We were near the airport on the western edge of the city. I didn't not notice it! But, Debbie, who was sitting down waiting, felt something which she wondered about but decided it must have been a large truck driving past. We were on a busy road. But it was not a truck.

In the city centre there are many empty buildings with scaffolding and cyclone fencing around them. There are many vacant lots where buildings have been demolished and not rebuilt.

I was in Christchurch in 2009 before the earthquake. Here are a few before and after photos:

The lovely blue stone building and the wheat sheaves are gone. The wall with the street art below would have been behind the blue stone building. All the shops still standing are closed. The high rise in the background is gone. The tree and the buildings behind it are gone.

Cathedral Square in 2009

 

 The Catholic Church is involved in high court battle to decide what to do about the cathedral which was a truly beautiful and iconic building.