Earthquake Report, Day 13 (March 6)

Why This Report Is Late:

Yesterday I promised this earthquake report either late yesterday or 'early' today and at early afternoon it definitely ain't early in the day… So what happened?

Firstly, the weather forecast yesterday promised rain, so as soon as I posted the book draw and launch-a-thon results I headed out, despite wind and dust, to try and clear what silt I could from the on-street drains—another 4-hour digging stint. This time I was on my own as well, which always makes the job feel a bit tougher, and needless to say I was exhausted at the end of it—but got the opportunity to head across town to a  friend's place and do laundry, and so 'seized the day.' But by the time all that was done, there was no time—or, if I am honest, energy—for blog posts.

I am glad that I did the work though, because I pulled out a lot more silt as well as clearing several small "dams" caused by blown newspaper and other rubbish, and when I checked the morning (because it has been raining) the water on the street at least was flowing. This is the situation we are in now: without rain, we get the constant blowing dust and the sort of storms we got last Wednesday (when, as my brother said: 'I saw the pictures on line and Christchurch looked like the Sahara'); with rain the dust is damped down, but with the stormwater pipes silted up presents a very real risk of surface flooding—and because of the liquefaction, subsidence as well.  Fortunately the rain has been light and intermittent, so we'll probably be ok.

The other reason why this post is late is because we had another swarm of aftershocks yesterday and two of them were 4 pointers, 4.1 and 4.8 respectively, and on top of the baseline of existing damage, of course have done more. Power went off briefly after the 4.8 and a few more things got shaken down so there has been a little bit of tidy up to be done this morning. That is a thing I know I definitely did not appreciate prior to September 4—and now February 22 has just underlined the point—which is that an event of this kind is not just the one quake and then it's over. There are swarms of aftershocks, some of them quite large in their own right: close to 5000 between September 4 and February 22, and another 410 approximately since then. And each aftershock of any magnitude worsens the existing damage. You get more cracks in walls, or existing cracks widen and/or lengthen, and houses that are already off their foundations get shaken a little further "off-centre.

Our Situation:

In terms of our personal situation, we are still without sewer and may yet be for some time, but we have power and tap water that is usable so long as we boil it. An update on our house as of Friday—we were visited by a council building assessment team—is that I was right to think the damage moderate, but also that there is some risk associated with our remaining chimney stack, as well as compromised bracing in one room. So both those areas will need to be addressed as soon as possible, which still leaves us somewhere far down a very long list, I imagine … But so far, it's still weathertight and livable so we still consider (know!) ourselves to be well off compared to many.

The Trip Across Town:

The laundry run last night was the first time I have left the immediate area since February. I haven't had a car and it's been pretty tough getting around on foot, because of all the dust and congestion on the roads that have been open, as well as having to dodge emergency repair works everywhere—either that or get in the way of the teams doing stuff that matters, which is not "the go" in my book. Even if I had the car, the Civil Defence authorities have been asking people to stick to essential trips, so I wouldn't have been going far anyway. But this is the first time I've gotten much visibility of the larger picture, with the roads buckled and mounded in many places and a large number of collapsed buildings. I knew all this anyway, from the news reports, but last night's drive certainly brought home that the city I knew before February 22nd  is going to be in large part gone forever. It's not just the big landmark buildings, it's all the little street corners and pockets of character, too.

The Lyttelton Timeball Station

One major landmark building that is definitely going is the Lyttelton Timeball Station. It is a Category 1 Registered Historic Place and internationally significant because of its rarity, but has been so badly damaged by the February 22nd earthquake that it has to be demolished. The official notice on the NZ Historic Places Trust site is here.

I actually saw in the New Year for 1 January 2000, the first day of the new millenium, at the Lyttelton Timeball Station and composed this little poem on the occasion. I've never put it 'out there' before, because  the "break break break" beginning is too strong an echo of Tennyson's poem of the same name—but at the time it was a tribute to one of the great poets of the previous millenium and "worked" in the context of a verse that I made up "on the spot" for the group of friends that I was with. I also note that the bird call and the welcome to the world of light is an element in many traditional Maori waiata.

Despite these limitations, I am still going to leave you with this poem for today, both because of its strong association with, and as my personal commemoration of, this wonderful building—but also because it speaks of hope for the future, which is something I feel we all need to look toward now in Christchurch, even as we mourn all that has been lost.

Millenium

1 January 2000

Break

Break

Break

New dawn

New day

New millennium

The weight of a thousand years

Dissolves, lifts, rolls away,

like a mist on the face

of the sea, when the sun

comes up, rejoicing.

The bird calls,

out of darkness – welcome:

welcome to the world of light.

It is the world new made,

a world made for living in,

and the bird calls

with the voice of morning:

Ka marama – it is the Dawn.

Ka awatea – it is Day.

by Helen Lowe