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Earthquakes
Feb. 22nd, 2012 10:05 pmOne year ago today was the Christchurch earthquake, which killed 185 people and left most of the central city in ruins, as well as significant parts of a number of suburbs. So, one year ago this morning I walked to work through the city, on a route I have not been able to take since, and one year ago this afternoon I walked back home again, past buildings with chunks falling off them, people huddled in parks, silt and water everywhere, and smoke rising from the remains of the CTV building a few blocks from my house.
I (and my dog) moved back into my house in December. It's damaged, if liveable, and I have yet (since September 2010, and the 7.1 quake) to have any official EQC inspections, although there was an insurance company-ordered inspection of the complex as a whole. This was, however, before the December 23rd aftershocks, which caused quite a bit more damage in my area, and broke my hot water cylinder again. There is also no decision about the land. The government has declared some areas red zone - the land is not worth the cost of fixing - and agreed to pay the owners the rateable value of the property. Green zone is land worth salvaging (orange and white are in limbo), but there are three subcategories of green, and my house is on the worst, green-blue or T3. The land will need extensive repairs before the houses can be repaired, but it will not be written off; what we may end up with is patched-up houses on unstable land, and no way to sell up (except to very naive buyers) or move on.
I went to a couple of the smaller memorial services today - the 2 minutes' silence at the Peace Bell in Hagley Park, and this evening an even smaller neighbourhood group, by the empty site that used to be a local church. Someone put paperbag lanterns out along the ground, marking out the route of one of the old streams that used to be here (these old streams are why the land was so badly affected by the quakes, with sand and liquifaction where we thought things were solid) and, behind the wire fence around the church site, a lantern for each of the people killed in this area, with their initials on the bag.
I'm not going to stay in Christchurch. I've accepted a job in Auckland to start in June, and even though I have no idea what will happen with my house here (or how to find accommodation there), I will still leave. I will miss Christchurch, and in particular my friends here; but I miss the city already, because I'm living in it and it's gone.
(the curious can read my earlier earthquake entries here; I haven't been organised enough to tag them on lj yet.)
I (and my dog) moved back into my house in December. It's damaged, if liveable, and I have yet (since September 2010, and the 7.1 quake) to have any official EQC inspections, although there was an insurance company-ordered inspection of the complex as a whole. This was, however, before the December 23rd aftershocks, which caused quite a bit more damage in my area, and broke my hot water cylinder again. There is also no decision about the land. The government has declared some areas red zone - the land is not worth the cost of fixing - and agreed to pay the owners the rateable value of the property. Green zone is land worth salvaging (orange and white are in limbo), but there are three subcategories of green, and my house is on the worst, green-blue or T3. The land will need extensive repairs before the houses can be repaired, but it will not be written off; what we may end up with is patched-up houses on unstable land, and no way to sell up (except to very naive buyers) or move on.
I went to a couple of the smaller memorial services today - the 2 minutes' silence at the Peace Bell in Hagley Park, and this evening an even smaller neighbourhood group, by the empty site that used to be a local church. Someone put paperbag lanterns out along the ground, marking out the route of one of the old streams that used to be here (these old streams are why the land was so badly affected by the quakes, with sand and liquifaction where we thought things were solid) and, behind the wire fence around the church site, a lantern for each of the people killed in this area, with their initials on the bag.
I'm not going to stay in Christchurch. I've accepted a job in Auckland to start in June, and even though I have no idea what will happen with my house here (or how to find accommodation there), I will still leave. I will miss Christchurch, and in particular my friends here; but I miss the city already, because I'm living in it and it's gone.
(the curious can read my earlier earthquake entries here; I haven't been organised enough to tag them on lj yet.)
