The Canterbury Earthquake 2010

Well its been 4 months and one week since the earth ruptured 15 km down the road from out gate,  in an utterly monumental manner. It's time to chronicle my experience of that life changing time.

The day before had been cold, winters last major flick. Sleet in town, snow on the hills. It cleared that Friday night to a frosty winters evening, quite normal for spring in Christchurch. Rob had come round and we watched Sonny Bill Williams' first turn out in red and black colours as Canterbury put the Bay of Plenty team to bed. Sharon was out on the town. Just another night in front of a roaring fire at home for me. This was to be our last roaring fire for the year.

My first though at 4.35am was "why am I on the floor?". Somehow I got back in bed and suddenly was bolt upright and in tune to the surrounds- the noise was unbelievable as the house lurched violently from side to side, up and down back and forward. The brain wasn't able to process what was really happening until the street lights went out with the rest of the power mid shake. I couldn't hear anything except the roar of the ground heaving, the house rattling and things falling. If the boys, 2 rooms away, were making any noise I didn't hear it til the shaking stopped.  The moment the power went out the mind comprehended things, this was The Big One. This was bad. Probably the Alpine Fault. Maybe- god forbid- Wellington. Still the shaking went on, the main shake latest nearly a minute at which point it became possible to go and get the lads out of their cots and into our bed. They were yelling, but god bless them they were happy as anything once in bed.

I went out to the kitchen to try and find a torch. Got the cellphone and rang Mum in Wellington. Despite the ungodly hour apparently this shake had been big enough to wake folk up there- but I was relieved to hear it wasn't the Armageddon quake for Wellington that some think is coming. Mum was soon able to tell us it was a 7.1 (initially 7.4) centered near ChCh. Couldn't believe it, centered near here? Not in the hills? WOW!There was plenty of broken stuff and things on the floor, so I went back to be, shivering, and and we all cosied up, talked on the phone while the first (and in the end biggest) aftershocks started rolling through. Unnerving but adrenaline was flowing. Somehow, as dawn approached we nearly nodded off again.

Then the neighbour came up the drive yelling "are you ok, your house is bad":...and Sharon was first out the door. Remarkably, the chimney had come down, taking out the front of the house on its way, and we simply hadn't heard it above the roar of the quake and the noise of the house shaking and groaning. The neighbours reckon they heard it though, quite a thud.

We got up and had breakfast. Tried to instill some normaility for the day. Lovely morning, a stunner, not a cloud in the sky. they talk of earthquake weather- I believe it. Decent aftershocks were coming through with increasing frequency. Wanting to hear news we jumped in the car and had a wee drive to check on offices, family etc. All was well, remarkably but the news was suggesting bad damage in town and out east. Just the beginning.

We went to Mark and Loren's- they had power. The kids played, happily. Saw the first liquefaction, round Halswell. Just weird, little disks of mud that had burst out of the ground like volcanoes- they looked like flying saucers. Later on the scientist in me wished this thing had happened in daylight hours so we could have seen how it happens.

The rest of the day was a blur.Seeing the damage on tele, saying to self...is this really our town? Getting and receiving texts and just generally feeling edgy. The day was quiet, had a similar feeling to the peace and solitude of Xmas Morning, just with a scary twist. All the neighbours were talking to each other. The community really came together- this is one of the enduring memories of the whole event, a sense of sharing in history and a community coming together. Christchurch will be stronger for it.

I think Jason Gunn had a great line on tele...."It's like someone took a baseball bat and attacked the family", My thoughts are that it is a deepy personal affront to have mother Nature clobber you so suddenyl and comprehensively.

Sometimes the views of others in hindsight are really interesting, heres a Youtube I found from Australia's Channel 7:



I won't analyse the following 4 months, suffice to say its been a roller coaster. Slowly we have got used to the smaller aftershocks, but we still have heart attacks at the big ones. And they are still coming, 4 months, 4,000 aftershocks. Sept 8 and Boxing Day in particular will stick in the memorybank for a lifetime.

But we are still here. We still love living in Christchurch. Sleep patterns are starting to return to a semblance of normality for most people. We already look back at September as last year, which it now is.

Now lets make something of the rebuilding of those tooth-like gaps around town. out of disaster comes opportunity. Lets make it work.

Theres a great documentary on National Radio, heres the link I recommend it:

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/documentaries/faultlines