TheBanyanTree: To Those Down Under (Chris & Kate)

[Chris & Kate]

Thanks Tom  :-)
No tsunami was involved in the earthquake.  The fault was a previously unrecorded one 6 kms south of the city.  (the city has a pop of about 300,000 people).  Many areas of New Zealand are known for being earthquake prone (particularly the capital city, Wellington) but Christchurch had not experienced any major ones in its recent history, so I suppose they felt quite complacent about it.  It was settled in the 1820's onwards and many of its main CBD buildings were made of unreinforced masonry in Victorian and gothic styles, or the local stone. 

We visited Christchurch about 6 months after the major quake and the taxi driver explained to us that we would not notice any damage as he drove us from the airport (west side) towards the city centre.  However as soon as we neared the city's heart the devastation was shocking, and all our favourite landmark Victorian buildings were missing or in ruins.  The east side of Christchurch was very hard to navigate through as the roads were buckled and houses were sitting at very odd angles, some half sunk into the ground, others sticking up in the air.  It really looks very forlorn.  The city has decided that the land on that side of the city cannot be rebuilt on as it is drained swampland and will always be at risk of "liquefaction" as happened in the earthquake.  So that side of the town will be abandoned and turned into parkland.

The whole of New Zealand has been affected by the flattening of our second biggest city, emotionally and financially, as well as by the 185 people who lost their lives in two office building collapses.  Our insurance premiums for our homes have also doubled!  It has taken a long time for all the insurance issues to be worked through and for finance to be available to start rebuilding, a lot of families feel very disillusioned with they way they have been left in the lurch by the insurers.

In Dunedin (south of Christchurch) we all feel a little uneasy as our town is entirely early architecture and we have some beautiful old and ornate Victorian buildings, also unreinforced!  Dunedin is not known to be on any major fault line path, but of course we cannot afford to be complacent either.  When the Christchurch earthquake struck it was felt quite strongly in Dunedin also. 

On a brighter note, rebuilding is now gathering pace and the plan is for a green and energy efficient new city centre.  But for all of us who remembers old Christchurch we still feel sad about the almost complete loss of the city's heritage buildings.

Kate


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tom Smith 
  To: thebanyantree at lists.remsset.com 
  Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2013 8:51 AM
  Subject: Re: TheBanyanTree: To Those Down Under (Chris & Kate)


  Fascinating contribution, Kate.   You engaged my curiosity about
  that earthquake, and soon I found myself searching the web for 
  more information.  Found a picture gallery that was astounding:  
  One image particularly stood out, of a building sitting on a car.
  It is incomprehensible to me that ANY part of Christchurch
  could NOT have catastrophic damage.  Why the west half of
  the city would have less damage is mysterious.  The city sits on the
  east coast, and I wonder if a tsunami was involved..

  Looking forward to seeing more of your writing.   We are a
  lucky group to have so many good communicators scattered
  around the world.