The Earthquake Post
Today marks 171 days since the 22nd of February and the 6.3 Earthquake that destroyed my city and killed 181 people. This is the exact same amount of time between 22nd of February and the 7.1 Earthquake that started it all on 4th of September 2010.
I wasn't going to post this, I more wrote it for my own benefit than anything. It's not my greatest piece of writing either, but it's way too personal and I don't do well with writing about myself (I can't even keep a diary properly) and I'm not the best at talking about my emotions openly... But then I thought why not? And today's a good day to do it.
In case you haven't seen- just because I refer to it a lot.
Wiki Article on September's Quake
My House on September 4th
Starting Note: This is an account of what happened to me in the city on Christchurch, New Zealand on 22nd February 2011. Most of this was written in the week following though some has just been finished as late as yesterday. I tried to be as honest and clear as possible but I want to apologise to anyone I talk about if I've recalled something wrong. Obviously most conversations are not word-for-word but just as close as I can remember.
I've included pictures and videos too because, like they say, a picture can speak a thousand words. And hey, this is the internet, not a newspaper, why not be using all it has to offer?
--
I got up earlier than usual on Tuesday 22nd February. I had decided to get to University earlier than I had to, to print off some German homework I was planning to do that afternoon with my friend, Kris.
I was pleased to run into my friend Mafin (pronounced 'muffin' and it's a long story). We went to high school together but I hadn't seen her over summer. We had a quick catch up waiting for computers, she was trying to find out her timetable as it was only the second day of the Uni year and classrooms and lecture theatres were still being sorted.
I managed to get a comp and print off my German sheets. Grammar revision, Yay. At that point I considered the most interesting moment of my day that fact that the paper came out of the printer already stapled.
Spoiler: it wasn't.
Though, a printer that staples? That is still cool.
My first class was LING215, a linguistics course on phonetics. It was the first lecture so it was mainly an intro. The lecturer was telling us about all the things you could do with phonetics and some of the things you couldn't. She said CSI was stupid because there was no such thing as a 'voice print'. Never watched CSI but I thought it was a bit funny.
Note: this is relevant later.
My friend Louis is in all my classes and we walked to our next class, which was German, together. I'm sure we talked but I have no idea what about. While waiting for that previous class to leave I made a note on my phone to go pick up a hdmi cable for our new HD tv on the way home, I also remembered we needed juice and decided after class I would first, finish the grammar sheets with Kris, second, head to the mall just down the road where I work to check my shifts and third, get a hdmi cable and go to the supermarket.
German was fun, we were a small class last year and we pretty much knew everyone already. There were only three new people, two first years who's German was proficient enough they could take a second year course and someone from the other class last year who had a timetable clash this year. The class usually runs from 12.10pm to 1pm and today we were discussing the Nordseeküste (North sea coast). I was paired with Kris to read the text out loud, we alternated sentences and translated at the end. Apparently the north sea has a lot of rain, wind, cold, mud and… Yeah.
At 12.45pm our teacher asked if this class finished at 12.50pm or 1pm. We told her 1pm- classes before midday go 50 minutes from the hour, classes after go 50 minutes to the hour. So we had time to do her final exercise then. We divided up into people with liked to live by the Meer (sea) and those whose wanted to live by the Berg (mountains). I pretended to be offend by that and said I was quite happy on the plains where I lived thank you very much. Actually I was just lazy and wanted to stay in my seat. Kris and another guy decided to stay with me (moving is hard). The teacher took that as an opportunity to change the exercise, instead of describing (auf Deutsch) what was so great about the mountains or the sea, they had to convince us to leave the plains and go to their side. Away from the Erdbeben. We all laughed.
I looked up 'plains' in my dictionary, then checked the time while the teacher went back to her desk to get some handouts.
Then the shaking started, it was a bit worrying at first but we were used to aftershocks, we get those, more often out of town at my house but last term we had had felt a 5.0 at Uni while I was in one of the big lecture theatres. It was rather similar to one of those motion rides you can go on in the amusement parks.
Except they usually stop after a moment, they're usually very small, this time the shaking kept going. We waited for it to stop. Then it got worse.
Now, never again will I complain about all the time we spent on earthquake drills in school. It was just instinct that I dropped to the floor got under my desk. I remember seeing Kris drop at exactly the same time and wondering if we would look like we had panicked or overreacted but then the shaking intensified further and I didn't really care. Somewhere I registered my teacher was under her desk too as was the guy on the other side of me.
I held the legs of my desk and my neighbour's like I'd been taught, to stop the desk from 'walking' away from me and so that I didn't hurt my fingers with the legs banging against one another.
It was intense, I was thrown quite violently from side to side, and I honestly thought the building might come down. Having been quite near the epicentre of a 7.1 earthquake five months earlier and subsequent aftershocks (7500 to date- about 6700 or so strong enough to feel) I was well used to the feel of the ground shaking. As soon as I was under my desk I knew this one was different though. It started bad but it just kept getting worse this time. And the ground wasn't just shaking, it was swinging, very violently, I could have sworn we were moving horizontally at least several metres before being jerked suddenly back the other way.
Note: I later found out this was exactly the case- the ground movement of this earthquake was different and much more than the 7.1 in September.
The noise was incredible and for a few moments I seriously thought the building might fall. Given I was on the bottom floor of a seven storey building this didn't seem like it would end well for me if it happened; flimsy, standard issue Uni desk or not.
Note: Being on the bottom floor is the worst possible place, top is better, roof is best. Half the restaurant my Dad was in at the time came down and a construction worker on the roof rode the two story building to the ground and stepped off unharmed. Luckily the part the collapsed had already been cordoned off from September and the construction worker was the only person on that side.
Thankfully, back at Uni, the worst was over quickly (21 seconds, even if at the time it seemed like forever. One of the new girls was crying and my teacher was swearing loudly from under her desk. The end of the first quake was strange. Everyone was looking out from under there desks and then someone asked, "Is it over?"
It wasn't just a scared question to break the silence either, he was serious, the ground was still moving. Not the violent shaking of a second before, but an almost gentle rocking motion like a boat on a calm day. I put my hand on the ground and suggested we wait a few more moments, not that anyone was eager to get up. The first thing that registered to me while under the desk was that the power was out and that that was a bad sign.
The ground finally stoped rocking and we all clambered up, several people going to comfort the girl in tears (Mary, who was later really embarrassed about that) and my teacher looking like there was nothing she'd rather do than cry herself.
"Was that the 6?" I asked, my voice probably loud and high like it is most times I get upset or scared. "They said we would get a 6- was that it?"
No one replied, they wouldn't know anyway and I doubted they we actually hearing me.
"It felt like a 6."
My teacher was shaking and wasn't the only one.
"I think that was our 6."
Note: When we had an earthquake of magnitude 7.1, geo-scientists warned that in the usual course of aftershocks we could expect a quake of one magnitude less than the first, i.e. 6.1. After six months we had started to think we were okay. Not to sound dramatic or anything but: we were wrong.
"It was probably the 6."
By this point I wasn't even listening to me.
Cellphones were already out but as you might expect we weren't the only ones on them and calls weren't getting through. Kris was trying to reach his girlfriend but couldn't, after two goes he turned to me and asked if I was alright, when I told him I was fine- I seem to recall my exact words were: "I… yeah, I'm fine, whoa… that was big."
He left quickly while I tried to phone my Mum who I knew would be freaking out about me and my sister. I waited for thirty seconds for the phone to even start ringing but finally it did and my Mum picked up immediately, screaming down the line, "Are you okay?"
I told her I was fine and the whole class stood in silence and listened as I spoke to her. She thought her tyre had burst so pulled over only to realise when you have a flat tyre the car usually stops moving when you turn it off. Then the road opened up in front of her and she realised what was happening.
When I hung up so she could call my sister the other German students wanted to know what was going on. Unfortunately two of them lived the suburb she was in and their nerves weren't calmed when I told them about the road.
We decided to leave the building quickly and went outside where everyone else was evacuating too. I ended up with Mary and three other students. We decided to head to the field because when you've just had a very real fear that a building might crush you, wide open spaces look very good.
We walked up onto a small area of grass, introducing ourselves and trying to figure out where to go.
We had just decided to move to the larger field when the ground dropped underneath us and slid sharply the side. Another aftershock (5.7) and it was almost more terrifying than the first. You see, buildings can shake for a variety of reasons- construction work for one, or maybe someone crashed a car into it even. This was my first major earthquake outside and let me tell you, there is something seriously wrong when you're standing on grass and the earth itself ups and moves under your feet. Buildings, your mind can accept, rationalise even. The earth itself? That big, solid thing you've walked on your whole life, every step taken with the complete and unwavering confidence it will still be in the same place when you put your foot down?
That's something else.
The shaking kept going. Everyone was screaming and my first thoughts was to crouch down so I didn't fall over but Mary yelled and grabbed hold of me, I steadied her and someone else who grabbed my arm, realising I'd have to try and stay upright so I didn't pull us all to the ground.
During that shake I remember seeing some parked cars across the road rocking wildly up and down. I almost wanted to laugh.
That one was shorter than the big one and we got moving again very quickly. Mary embarrassedly apologised for 'just grabbing you like that' which I didn't really know what to say to. I didn't really mind but I suggested next time we crouch down.
"Maybe we should get out in the open."
I can't recall who of our group said it but it was most certainly a sentiment we all agreed with, especially when another shock rumbled beneath us.
We walked a little nervously over the bridge and followed directions of a staff memeber to the running track by the gym. We arrived to find everyone standing under the trees.
"Can we not stand under the trees?" Mary asked and I agreed. I couldn't recall seeing any trees come down in September's 7.1 but I wasn't about to risk it.
We headed down onto the main field area, somehow adding to our group as we did. Many people were still trying to contact their families with no luck. I offered my cellphone as I was on a different network but the lines were still jammed.
Still no luck. "The networks will be flooded with calls," I assured everyone, "that's the reason you can't get a hold of them. Remember in September how they crashed?"
Everyone seemed to be thinking that anyway. A few people were texting but weren't sure if they were going though.
A man from the University came over then to inform us we were all going to Ilam fields instead, over the other side of campus. I had noticed a lot of people hurrying to their cars and wondered if I should do the same.
I wasn't too keen on driving at that time though, after what my mother had told me. And I also wanted to stay with people. I'm not the most social person in the world but you'd be surprised how much you crave company during an experience like this.
We joined the crowds heading back the way we came. I was checking my phone to see if I could find out how large the quake had been. After September I had downloaded an app to track them. It colour-codes them based on intensity. 2 or less are green, around 3-4 is dark bluish. 4.8 or above is red- the redder the worse.
This one was bright red.
"Holy crap, 6.3!" I yelled out before I could think of a better or nicer way to say it.
Now, almost anyone could tell you a 6.3 was no good but after living through a 7.1, feeling 6700 aftershocks between then and now, and having a mother who obsessively checks the internet or my phone for the magnitude of each one I truly knew exactly how strong a 6.3 was.
"28 km east," I read out. "That's where I live."
"Really?" someone asked, "where do you live?"
"No." I frowned. "Sorry, I was wrong." I lived west of the city. 28 kms east was almost right in the city. I was just so used to the aftershocks being centred out by my house I had said it automatically.
I decided to try calling my house again and was surprised when I got through to my sister. "Are you okay?" I almost yelled down the line. "Mum's so worried, why did you call her?"
"Why, what's going on?" she asked.
"What do you mean? Didn't you feel it?" I asked in disbelief.
"That aftershock?"
"It's more than an aftershock, turn on the TV, do we still have power?"
"Yeah," she said in a confused tone, "Why?"
It took a few more minutes to convinces her how serious this really was but when I look back I can understand her disbelief. The fault line that ruptured in September was very close to where we lived. So if something happened, like 2000 or so aftershocks between then and today, we knew we were the worst hit. Half the time we had shocks prior to February, the "townies" didn't even feel it.
We continued walking, not crossing the bridge again but walking through the carpark.
"It's not an aftershock," a boy behind us was saying, "it's on a whole new fault and it's too long after and it felt too big for it to be an aftershock."
"It was 6.3," I told him, wondering what he meant when he talked about a new fault.
Note: He was right but I have no idea how he knew this so soon after it had hit.
"Wow, that is big," he said.
We had to cross a road to get to Ilam fields but it was easy as the traffic was bumper-to-bumper and at a complete standstill as people flooded the roads, trying to get to loved ones and houses.
We slid between the cars and made our way on to the field. People were gathered around the edges, still anxiously checking phones but we made our way to the middle, away from trees and other things that could fall as the faint rumble and jolt of another shock passed under our feet.
Our group was soon joined by more people, some in shock, most unable to go home and all wanting company.
I started reading off my TVNZ news app on my phone. The first update was that there had been another "massive aftershock" in Christchurch (the general response to that being "no shit"). The mayor had been thrown across the room he was in (clearly important information). People were "seriously injured" in the city and there were unconfirmed reports of fatalities. People had been seen walking around with blood running down their faces.
I didn't feel anything about hearing this. It hadn't registered in my mind at that point that this could actually be happening. Happening again but worse.
"No one died in September though," someone said.
She was right. We'd lived through one, we'd all survived, we'd pulled together and we were starting to rebuild. This wasn't fair to have it happen again. We weren't going to be that lucky twice.
"Yeah, but this one was… 28km east?" one of my German classmates asked, looking to me for confirmation.
I nodded.
"That's in the sea," another person said, looking worried, "if there was a tsunami we wouldn't get it here right?"
"I don't think so," I assured him, "and they haven't given a tsunami warning. Is it in the sea? I though the beach was further away?"
"Town sounds bad," someone else said.
Note: There were like 15 people sitting with us, I knew two names so there's a lot of 'someone's.
"The cathedral spire has come down," someone commented in an almost casual way.
"Really?" I asked, rather interested. At this point I was still in shock and hadn't quite processed that this wasn't like September 4th. I was also remembering the last earthquake to take a piece of our cathedral was in 1901 and it only broke off the very top. The model of this event was one of my favourite things in the city museum.
I never considered the cathedral would not remain in one piece for my lifetime. It is the one constant I have always seen in the city and even as an atheist I'm pretty damn proud of how impressive it looks- looked, standing tall and proud at the heart of the central square.
"Yeah, and the hospital too."
"What about the hospital?" Mary asked, "My Mum works there."
"It's been evacuated," someone told her, staring at their phone.
"No," the first person replied, "it's collapsed."
At this point Mary looked quite worried and I wanted to hit the person who said that. "The hospital wouldn't collapse," I told them both, "it's the most earthquake-proof building in the city."
Note: Once you've lived through a 7.1 you learn these things.
"Yeah, but the cathedral's definitely hit, a wall crumbled too, my friend's there."
That I believed, brick buildings were worst hit in September, if this one had been in the city the cathedral might have been damaged. It still had not occurred to me that this was midday and tourists might have been in it.
An official came over to our group then and announced that the students in the halls of residence could go back and the Uni was closed for the day. He said he couldn't give us any information about the rest of the week but we had been through this before. No one expected to come back that week.
Note: Three weeks later one of my classes resumed, the other three continued the next week.
"Well what now?" someone asked.
I shrugged and turned to Mary. "Did you want me to take you home? I can, though I'm only on my restricted."
Note: In NZ a restricted license allows you to drive alone but not with passengers.
Another member of our group laughed. "Look I don't think the cops will be too worried about that today," he assured me.
"Right." I nodded.
People started to leave. Some were heading for the halls which were still open and offering other students the use of their facilities until they could get in contact with family or flatmates.
"I think I'll be okay here," Mary told me, "I want to find my brother, he was supposed to be on campus today."
"Does anyone else need a ride?" I asked.
Emily, a girl from Cashmere who usually bused asked if the buses were still running.
"I can take you if they're not," I assured her.
Another boy was going towards the opposite side of town so he offered to take more people.
I got up and with Mary, Emily and another girl we headed towards the road which was now filled with bumper to bumper traffic moving a centimetre a minute.
"Are you sure you're okay?" I asked Mary when we reached the edge of the field.
"I'm fine."
"Well I'm going to give you a hug anyway," I told her.
She smiled and happily returned it. "Hey, can I get your phone number?" she asked.
I had just been about to ask the same thing as I wanted to know she was going to be alright.
Note: She told me via txt that night her family was fine but they had no water or power. Her house was liveable for the semester but I haven't talked to her since the holidays and it may now be in the city's red zone- meaning the ground is unsuitable for buildings. If that's the case her family will get paid the value of their land and house in 2007 (which is very good) and have to move elsewhere.
We said goodbye and Emily and I continued towards the bus stop.
"The Orbiter's there," Emily said, spotting the green bus, "that's my bus, I can take it."
"Doesn't look like it's going anywhere," I said, noting there were in fact, two of the green buses at the stop which didn't seem like a good sign. "We'll check, but it's really no issue to drive you home."
She probably thought I was being nice. I was, I would feel terrible to leave her with no way of getting home, especially on a day like this. But I also wanted to see the town. My route home took me almost straight into the rural outskirts of Christchurch. A small part of me wanted the excuse to drive around and see the destruction this shake had caused for myself. This was my city, I wanted to know what I was in for in the coming weeks.
I also was scared of driving alone- or even being alone at this point.
We walked to the second bus and stuck my head in.
"Are you moving?" I asked the driver, who just gave me the familiar stunned look I was fast growing familiar with.
"Do I look like I'm moving?" he asked.
"Well are you going to soon?"
"Not likely."
Emily and I continued towards my car.
"So where were you?" she asked, the first of many, many times the question would come up. I asked it as much as I heard it so I can't complain.
"German lecture," I said.
We continued towards my car, recounting our blow-by-blow experiences of the shake. Something that had become common after September and would be very much so in the following days too.
"Sorry I parked so far away," I said, feeling a tad embarrassed I had offered her a lift then made her walk five minutes to my car.
"That's okay," she said with a smile, "I'm pretty sure no one expected the day to go like this."
We got in the car and pulled out into traffic only to sit in one place for another five minutes.
"We need to go out that way," Emily told me, pointing the opposite way to where we were heading.
I nodded. "I think it'll be easier in this traffic if I loop around Bush Inn," I suggested, referring to the mall I worked at. It wasn't too far from Uni and the way the traffic was moving it seemed not only faster but safer to make three left turns than cut across the crowded road making one right turn.
Note: We drive on the left here.
"Oh! Wind the window down," Emily ordered me, waving to someone in a van going the other way.
She then proceeded to have a shouted conversation with a woman in a van who knew her family. Unfortunately after a moment traffic moved on.
I rolled the window back up. "That's a neighbour," Emily explained. "She's checking up on me, my parents are dropping my older sister off at Otago Uni, the won't be back until tomorrow, it's just me and my other sister."
"How old's she?"
"Thirteen," Emily replied, "she only had a half-day of school today." She checked her phone again.
"The lines are probably really jammed, I haven't heard from my Dad either. He works in town." I added, remembering the incredibly tall building in the centre of town my Dad worked in.
"The lines are really jammed," Emily agreed, "after the first one we couldn't get a hold of anyone."
Going down the small side street between the road Uni was on and the road Bush Inn was on was easy and we were quickly let into the bumper-to-bumper traffic on the other road and there we stayed spending about fifteen minutes to go a distance that usually took me thirty seconds.
As we inched past the mall I glanced over at my work and sighed.
"Darn, my work's still standing," I joked, trying to lighten the mood. (Actually I was kinda bummed but I'm not the only person who hates my job so whatever.)
"Where do you work?" Emily asked in amusement.
"That coffee shop there," I told her, nodding towards it. "no doubt we'll be back at work tomorrow."
"Won't they have to check the building?"
"Probably, I doubt our boss will care." I shook my head and explained how in the aftermath of September's earthquake my house had been flooding from a tank in our roof and my boss had not only told me it wasn't a good enough excuse for not coming in but then yelled at me for not phoning him properly. Then when I told him we had lost power for two days he had simply not believed me because they had got it back at 11am that day.
"You're kidding."
"I really wish I was."
Note: My boss is an ass.
We continued at a snail's pace, discussing various things. She had spent a year in France before coming to Uni, I told her about Uni life and what my first year had been like.
As we inched past the mall I noticed and add for CSI on a bus stop.
"Ha! CSI!" I laughed loudly and only a tad hysterically at the poster before I realised Emily was looking at me oddly. "Sorry, long story," I muttered. I'm used to driving alone.
"No, no, tell me about it," Emily said firmly.
Normally I would have just shook my head and told her she had to be there but then I realised what she was doing. She wanted to talk about something irrelevant, something to get our minds of reality.
I told her, taking as long as I could and explaining how I already knew CSI did things that were impossible but she didn't need to ruin it more for us.
"Actually I don't watch CSI anyway…" I finished after five minutes and about two metres of road covered.
"What class was this?" Emily asked.
"Linguistics," I answered.
"I'm doing that!" She told me. "First year."
"101 and 102?" I asked, "I did those."
"Were they good? "she asked, "Tell me about them," she ordered.
I tried to tell her about the classes in as much detail as I could manage, though I kept getting confused about which one was which.
The car started moving and I instinctively pressed my foot harder on the brake before I saw the car in front of me rocking too.
"Another one," Emily said nervously.
I nodded, glad I hadn't been moving. The aftershock passed and we inched further along the road, coming to another busy intersection. "Right here?" I asked.
Emily nodded and I pulled in to the right lane, wondering how on earth I was supposed to make the turn without traffic lights. The intersection was a complete mess, cars were jamming it, pointed in every direction. I waited for a few minutes before realising I was going to have to be assertive and nosed into the first gap I saw, earning and annoyed, albeit understanding look from the driver facing me.
We turned and continued along the road beside the mall carpark which was deserted. "Lights!" I cried in relief, looking ahead to see a functioning set of traffic lights.
"I wonder why those ones are working."
I shrugged. "Different grid? I'm just glad they are."
The lights hardly seemed to make much of a difference as we stayed completely still for up to three changes before inching forwards.
We were almost up to the front when the next shock hit and it was a big one. I reached for the hand brake at the same time Emily inhaled sharply and grabbed my hand. The car rocked worse than the last one and the traffic lights swayed alarmingly. Across the road I watched the windows of a building shudder in their frames. On the footpath people jumped away from the brick walls and crouched to the ground, jumping up and continuing immediately once it was over.
"Quick thinking with the hand brake," Emily told me, releasing my hand.
"Thanks," I muttered shakily.
"I kinda just grabbed you hand there…" she laughed a bit embarrassedly.
"That's alright," I told her honestly, "if you hadn't I probably would have."
The car started to rock again and I felt myself tense up. Each time I was excepting it to turn big again, like the last one… two hours ago by that time. The traffic light that extended over the cars was swaying again and Emily raised her eyebrows.
"I hope we don't get caught under that," she said.
Well we did but the next aftershock didn't come until we had just got out from under it. Though we were right next to the building who's widows looked like they might burst. I suppose that wouldn't have hurt us in the car but it certainly wouldn't have done anything good for our nerves.
During a long stretch of not-moving I called my step-brother and received word that he had heard from his mother, my Dad's wife, that he was okay. This was reassuring but I still would have liked him to contact me. He works in one of the tallest buildings in our city and with all the reports of destruction in the CBD I was still anxious.
Emily's phone went off a few minutes later. "My parents are on their way back up right now," she informed me, reading her text. "They were supposed to stay another night."
"Must have heard the news."
We spent a while in silence, the traffic moved a bit more freely for about ten minutes, which still only meant about 500 metres of movement.
The first sign of any real damage was the liquefaction. It was flooding the roads and footpaths and more and more keep coming up the longer we watched.
It was rather worrying driving through it. I kept a safe distance from the car in front of me and watched carefully as he drove through the murky water. With sink holes right in the middle of some of the roads I wasn’t going to take the chance that that flat, opaque water was actually hiding a four-foot-deep hole.
The next sign was the road, there were large cracks in it and was buckled in many places. Mostly the cracks seemed to run along the length of the road but at points we drove directly over some where the road and cracks and moved almost half a foot apart.
I wondered if I should be driving on them, not that I had much choice, all the roads were like that, I was lucky not to come across any sink holes though and the only point I was really worried was when I drove across a bridge which had separated from the road on both sides by several inches.
The roads were still gridlocked as we moved towards the hills, and even if they were I probably wouldn't have been driving much faster than I was with all the damage to the seal and the lack of functioning traffic lights. As such, we had plenty of time to watch the people on the footpaths.
Most were just wandering around, looking at the destruction with blank, dazed looks on their faces, unsure of what to do. There were clumps of people gathering around dairies and shops that sold essentials though many were getting turned away and I could see in some shops most of the merchandise was on the floor, no power either to process electronic transactions. A few walked past carrying milk.
"That's a good idea," I said randomly, "I should get some milk on the way home."
Still others were walking purposefully along, one outright running past us, desperate to get somewhere, to his family most likely.
A woman leading two young children across the flooded footpaths walked by when we were at a standstill. She wasn’t dressed for trudging through wet silt and water, but who was? She had a lovely top on and smart black pants with gorgeous black boots to finish it.
We watched as she came to a large sand volcano that had erupted right in the centre of the footpath and without hesitation stepped directly into it.
Without thinking I gasped and Emily cried, "oh, no".
"Those boots," I sighed, watching them get ruined by the silt as the woman lifted the children over.
"I know," Emily sighed with me.
Suddenly I laughed. "I'm glad you're not a guy," I told her, "I don't think a guy would have understood that."
Note: being sad over boots was a lot easier at this time than contemplating that there were hundreds dead in the city. This woman had clearly moved on from her shock and realised the boots meant bugger all compared to that.
My phone buzzed in its holder.
"Is that your Dad?" Emily asked.
I felt a brief surge of hope but my screen hadn't lit up which meant- "It's an e-mail," I said, shaking my head.
We still weren't moving so I removed it to check. It was a private message from LiveJournal from my friend K.
K had been the first person, from anywhere to contact me in September after our 7.1 too. I had been crouching under the table with my mother in the pitch black and 4am as aftershocks hit every minutes when her concerned e-mail had reached me. This one was more succinct than that one had been.
Subject: !!
Content: Are you okay?
I smiled. "Aw. My friend just e-mailed me from America to check if I was okay."
Traffic started rolling again and with the cell phone towers already strained I didn't risk replying right then.
"Are you good friends?" Emily asked. "Did you stay with her or something?"
"I've only spent three days in America," I told her, "I've actually never meet her. I know her from online."
Then followed the sometimes-awkward though this time thankfully not explanations of my comic book obsessions and how I knew K. Emily just found it nice that K was concerned about me.
We moved another three metres and it occurred to me that minor aftershocks might be reported in NZ but they probably wouldn't be in America. But I already knew this one was bad. And if it was news in the US, well, it clearly wasn't just another aftershock.
It was really, really bad. People were probably dead.
Now I started to feel sick.
"Keep going straight?" I asked Emily, trying not to think of what might be happening in my city.
It might sound a little sappy but though I'd always told people I loved my city (it's really awesome) I'd never really realised just how much until then.
We negotiated over another very-not-safe-looking bridge and Emily finally informed me we could turn onto a still busy but not gridlocked street.
"Oh, that's my bridge… there," Emily said, frowning at a taped of half-collapsed bridge as we drove past. "Maybe just pull in here, there a dairy too if you wanted milk."
I pulled in along a stretch of shops, the usual fish'n'chips store, barbers, butchers and of course, a dairy. We got out and headed towards the dairy where the owners were piling a trolley full of water bottles which was already in high demand.
I searched my wallet for cash as all the power was out when the was a rumble and a few screams but only the smallest of tremors. I turned to check on Emily but I couldn't find her for a moment until I saw her with a younger girl and a boy.
"This is my sister," she explained, coming back over. She did say who the boy was as well but I've forgotten. I think he was a neighbour.
"I'm getting water," I told them.
I moved towards the dairy, looking inside to see the lights off and merchandise everywhere. The owners had gotten a shopping trolley from somewhere and were piling drink bottles into it.
I got one bottle of water and one of milk. It was expensive but it was a dairy, still I had to wonder if the owners hadn't put up prices to suit demand (there was already quite a gathering of people demanding water).
"Are you sure?" I asked, wanting to make sure she was alright but also with a half-selfish desire to have a reason to stay in there, with all the people and where things were happening.
"I'm really fine," she said, "can I give you petrol money?"
"It's okay," I assured her.
We exchanged cell numbers and she went to see her house. I prepared myself for the difficult task of getting back into traffic. It took five minutes for a gap to appear, thankfully everyone was still driving slowly though. The very real fear of the road opening up under your car tends to make you cautious.
I was unfamiliar with this area but headed in the general direction I knew was right until I got lucky and hit a road I knew. I decided to go a rather indirect way home but as it would keep me on rural roads out of the clogged city roads I thought it might be quicker.
About halfway there the car in front of me suddenly pulled to the side to join a line of idle vehicles waiting on the side of the road. As I passed I realised it was a petrol station.
Panic buying hadn't taken long to set in. I looked at my own fuel gauge. It was way lower than it had been that morning, all the idling on the way to Emily's house hadn't helped, but it would get me home provided the roads weren't so bad out in the country.
My phone suddenly sprung to life, announcing I had somehow missed a call and had a message waiting. I saw it was from my Dad and didn't even bother to check the message as I pulled over, I just hit the call back button.
"Dad, are you okay?" I asked, as soon as he picked up.
"I'm fine," he replied, "I've just been taking people home and the phones are jammed I couldn't get hold of you. Where are you?"
"I'm going home via Halswell," I told him, "the roads are jammed through town, where were you?"
"I was at the Christchurch club having lunch," he told me, "half the building came down but it had already been cut off after September, so we were okay."
"They're saying people are dead in the city."
He paused then sighed. "Yeah, I think. The Pyne Gould building, you know the one across the river? That's collapsed, they were people in there. They'll be dead."
"Oh." What else was I going to say to that? "I'm going to try and get home, the roads are bad but less crowded out this way."
"Okay, talk to you tonight."
It was easier getting into traffic this time but I was desperate to get home now. I had to find out what was going on. Several damaged roads and severely cracked and bumped roads later I turned on the radio.
The mayor was on, I learnt there were people seriously injured and several buildings in the centre of the city had collapsed. The suburbs were badly hit with houses falling apart and liquefaction making the roads dangerous to drive on. Power was out and water mains were burst. The Civil Defence were already in action, the command bunker under the Beehive was already up and running and had been only ten minutes after the earthquake.
People were probably dead though it was unconfirmed at this time. The spire of the cathedral had come down and someone else came on saying that there were fears for tourists who'd been in the spire when it had collapsed.
I saw the cathedral in my mind. I'd seen it a thousand times, it is/was the heart of our city, it's technically Anglican but I've never found a person, whatever religious view, who didn't love it. I went though the square on the way from the bus exchange to my Dad's work, or on the way to the library through that little alley with the tiny barbers store, the little cafés and the catholic shop and strip club side-by-side that always made me laugh.
I'd been up the spire of course, everyone in Christchurch has at least once. And on the way through the square I'd always waved at the tourists up their with their cameras. I knew where the observation platform was and I knew that a whole lot more than just the tip had to come down for it to kill people in there.
Then, because the world wasn't depressing enough on that day already it began to rain.
The roads around my house were, as usual, deserted. But for the first time the absence of traffic made it feel ominous. Like one of those weird post-apocalyptic movies where the zombies ate everyone and you've only just woken up. Course I have an over-active imagination at the best of times…
The news was on when I got home, none of it was good.
"Shit," I said simply, staring in disbelief as buildings I used to know lay in rubble in my city.
"We're on CNN too," my sister told me, from her position by the computer where she was updating her Facebook page like mad.
"What happened out here?" I asked.
"I told you, it was just like a minor aftershock- a 4 or so."
I continued to watch the footage of buildings in ruins, almost crying when they showed our cathedral for half-an-hour or so before my Mum burst through the door.
"We're never leaving the house again," she told us, far more serious than joking before launching straight into what had happened since I'd spoken to her on the phone.
She works with intellectually disabled people and had been taking one of her clients from her work to a meeting where he was the client rep. on the board. He has to use a wheelchair but they left his main one at the work and they were planning on using one at the facility they were heading too. So when the road came up underneath her car she had no choice but to drive on and rip up the underside. She eventually just took the guy home and later found on the facility they were going to was severely damaged (and has since been closed down for good).
"We're on CNN," I told her once she was done, waving at the TV.
"You should tell everyone on the internet you're okay," my Mum said, "if it's on CNN they'll be worried."
That wasn't gong to be as easy I thought as my sister was clinging to the main PC like her life depended on it.
A few minutes later a distraction arrived in the form of a strange car coming up the driveway. I went out to meet it, wondering who on Earth was coming to our house on a day like this.
Two people got out, someone I didn't know and someone I know very well. My friend Ali who had stayed at our house for six weeks while my Mum and sister had been away.
"Ali!"
I ran up to her and gave her a hug, which she gladly returned.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, we're all alright," she told me, "no power but we're all alive. We just kinda thought we might come for a drive. This is Mitch."
I nodded at the unfamiliar man, no bothering to ask how they knew each other. I had other things on my mind. Ali told me things were just as hectic where she had been and that their house was still up but she needed to get out and had decided to come to my house to see me (and I'm not going to lie, that gave me a smile).
I invited them in, thankful that I had hard evidence at least one of my friends was safe.
"I was on Brougham St," Ali told me as they sat to watch the news with us, "I saw all these buildings just collapse in front of me."
"Shit." I wasn’t sure what else to say.
It was still too surreal. Too unthinkable that this would happen here, in my city. Again.
Eventually Ali had to leave to get back to her family and I got on the computer to update anyone who was worried about me.
"Is everyone okay?" My Mum asked later, after my own Facebook trawling and updating was done.
"I still haven't heard from Emma," I told her, going through the list of people I was worried about in my head and realising I was waiting to hear from an old school friend.
"I'm sure she'll be fine," my Mum said, though the words sounded more automatic than assuring.
The night continued much the same as that until we went to bed, I baked some more, muffins this time and phone calls and FaceBook messages were exchanged before I almost feel over from exhaustion.
--
End Note: Emma was fine, she was just busy helping her grandmother out of her ruined house on the day and contacted us the next afternoon. Uni went back four weeks later- in these conditions, though compensation was provided :P I spent the time immediately following the earthquake working and volunteering by baking and shovelling silt. The city is still closed off and we have no idea when we'll get back in.
So... there you go. Not the best thing I've ever written but like I said, I'm not good with personal stuff.
I wasn't going to post this, I more wrote it for my own benefit than anything. It's not my greatest piece of writing either, but it's way too personal and I don't do well with writing about myself (I can't even keep a diary properly) and I'm not the best at talking about my emotions openly... But then I thought why not? And today's a good day to do it.
In case you haven't seen- just because I refer to it a lot.
Wiki Article on September's Quake
My House on September 4th
Starting Note: This is an account of what happened to me in the city on Christchurch, New Zealand on 22nd February 2011. Most of this was written in the week following though some has just been finished as late as yesterday. I tried to be as honest and clear as possible but I want to apologise to anyone I talk about if I've recalled something wrong. Obviously most conversations are not word-for-word but just as close as I can remember.
I've included pictures and videos too because, like they say, a picture can speak a thousand words. And hey, this is the internet, not a newspaper, why not be using all it has to offer?
--
I got up earlier than usual on Tuesday 22nd February. I had decided to get to University earlier than I had to, to print off some German homework I was planning to do that afternoon with my friend, Kris.
I was pleased to run into my friend Mafin (pronounced 'muffin' and it's a long story). We went to high school together but I hadn't seen her over summer. We had a quick catch up waiting for computers, she was trying to find out her timetable as it was only the second day of the Uni year and classrooms and lecture theatres were still being sorted.
I managed to get a comp and print off my German sheets. Grammar revision, Yay. At that point I considered the most interesting moment of my day that fact that the paper came out of the printer already stapled.
Spoiler: it wasn't.
Though, a printer that staples? That is still cool.
My first class was LING215, a linguistics course on phonetics. It was the first lecture so it was mainly an intro. The lecturer was telling us about all the things you could do with phonetics and some of the things you couldn't. She said CSI was stupid because there was no such thing as a 'voice print'. Never watched CSI but I thought it was a bit funny.
Note: this is relevant later.
My friend Louis is in all my classes and we walked to our next class, which was German, together. I'm sure we talked but I have no idea what about. While waiting for that previous class to leave I made a note on my phone to go pick up a hdmi cable for our new HD tv on the way home, I also remembered we needed juice and decided after class I would first, finish the grammar sheets with Kris, second, head to the mall just down the road where I work to check my shifts and third, get a hdmi cable and go to the supermarket.
German was fun, we were a small class last year and we pretty much knew everyone already. There were only three new people, two first years who's German was proficient enough they could take a second year course and someone from the other class last year who had a timetable clash this year. The class usually runs from 12.10pm to 1pm and today we were discussing the Nordseeküste (North sea coast). I was paired with Kris to read the text out loud, we alternated sentences and translated at the end. Apparently the north sea has a lot of rain, wind, cold, mud and… Yeah.
At 12.45pm our teacher asked if this class finished at 12.50pm or 1pm. We told her 1pm- classes before midday go 50 minutes from the hour, classes after go 50 minutes to the hour. So we had time to do her final exercise then. We divided up into people with liked to live by the Meer (sea) and those whose wanted to live by the Berg (mountains). I pretended to be offend by that and said I was quite happy on the plains where I lived thank you very much. Actually I was just lazy and wanted to stay in my seat. Kris and another guy decided to stay with me (moving is hard). The teacher took that as an opportunity to change the exercise, instead of describing (auf Deutsch) what was so great about the mountains or the sea, they had to convince us to leave the plains and go to their side. Away from the Erdbeben. We all laughed.
I looked up 'plains' in my dictionary, then checked the time while the teacher went back to her desk to get some handouts.
Then the shaking started, it was a bit worrying at first but we were used to aftershocks, we get those, more often out of town at my house but last term we had had felt a 5.0 at Uni while I was in one of the big lecture theatres. It was rather similar to one of those motion rides you can go on in the amusement parks.
Except they usually stop after a moment, they're usually very small, this time the shaking kept going. We waited for it to stop. Then it got worse.
Now, never again will I complain about all the time we spent on earthquake drills in school. It was just instinct that I dropped to the floor got under my desk. I remember seeing Kris drop at exactly the same time and wondering if we would look like we had panicked or overreacted but then the shaking intensified further and I didn't really care. Somewhere I registered my teacher was under her desk too as was the guy on the other side of me.
I held the legs of my desk and my neighbour's like I'd been taught, to stop the desk from 'walking' away from me and so that I didn't hurt my fingers with the legs banging against one another.
It was intense, I was thrown quite violently from side to side, and I honestly thought the building might come down. Having been quite near the epicentre of a 7.1 earthquake five months earlier and subsequent aftershocks (7500 to date- about 6700 or so strong enough to feel) I was well used to the feel of the ground shaking. As soon as I was under my desk I knew this one was different though. It started bad but it just kept getting worse this time. And the ground wasn't just shaking, it was swinging, very violently, I could have sworn we were moving horizontally at least several metres before being jerked suddenly back the other way.
Note: I later found out this was exactly the case- the ground movement of this earthquake was different and much more than the 7.1 in September.
The noise was incredible and for a few moments I seriously thought the building might fall. Given I was on the bottom floor of a seven storey building this didn't seem like it would end well for me if it happened; flimsy, standard issue Uni desk or not.
Note: Being on the bottom floor is the worst possible place, top is better, roof is best. Half the restaurant my Dad was in at the time came down and a construction worker on the roof rode the two story building to the ground and stepped off unharmed. Luckily the part the collapsed had already been cordoned off from September and the construction worker was the only person on that side.
Thankfully, back at Uni, the worst was over quickly (21 seconds, even if at the time it seemed like forever. One of the new girls was crying and my teacher was swearing loudly from under her desk. The end of the first quake was strange. Everyone was looking out from under there desks and then someone asked, "Is it over?"
It wasn't just a scared question to break the silence either, he was serious, the ground was still moving. Not the violent shaking of a second before, but an almost gentle rocking motion like a boat on a calm day. I put my hand on the ground and suggested we wait a few more moments, not that anyone was eager to get up. The first thing that registered to me while under the desk was that the power was out and that that was a bad sign.
The ground finally stoped rocking and we all clambered up, several people going to comfort the girl in tears (Mary, who was later really embarrassed about that) and my teacher looking like there was nothing she'd rather do than cry herself.
"Was that the 6?" I asked, my voice probably loud and high like it is most times I get upset or scared. "They said we would get a 6- was that it?"
No one replied, they wouldn't know anyway and I doubted they we actually hearing me.
"It felt like a 6."
My teacher was shaking and wasn't the only one.
"I think that was our 6."
Note: When we had an earthquake of magnitude 7.1, geo-scientists warned that in the usual course of aftershocks we could expect a quake of one magnitude less than the first, i.e. 6.1. After six months we had started to think we were okay. Not to sound dramatic or anything but: we were wrong.
"It was probably the 6."
By this point I wasn't even listening to me.
Cellphones were already out but as you might expect we weren't the only ones on them and calls weren't getting through. Kris was trying to reach his girlfriend but couldn't, after two goes he turned to me and asked if I was alright, when I told him I was fine- I seem to recall my exact words were: "I… yeah, I'm fine, whoa… that was big."
He left quickly while I tried to phone my Mum who I knew would be freaking out about me and my sister. I waited for thirty seconds for the phone to even start ringing but finally it did and my Mum picked up immediately, screaming down the line, "Are you okay?"
I told her I was fine and the whole class stood in silence and listened as I spoke to her. She thought her tyre had burst so pulled over only to realise when you have a flat tyre the car usually stops moving when you turn it off. Then the road opened up in front of her and she realised what was happening.
When I hung up so she could call my sister the other German students wanted to know what was going on. Unfortunately two of them lived the suburb she was in and their nerves weren't calmed when I told them about the road.
We decided to leave the building quickly and went outside where everyone else was evacuating too. I ended up with Mary and three other students. We decided to head to the field because when you've just had a very real fear that a building might crush you, wide open spaces look very good.
We walked up onto a small area of grass, introducing ourselves and trying to figure out where to go.
We had just decided to move to the larger field when the ground dropped underneath us and slid sharply the side. Another aftershock (5.7) and it was almost more terrifying than the first. You see, buildings can shake for a variety of reasons- construction work for one, or maybe someone crashed a car into it even. This was my first major earthquake outside and let me tell you, there is something seriously wrong when you're standing on grass and the earth itself ups and moves under your feet. Buildings, your mind can accept, rationalise even. The earth itself? That big, solid thing you've walked on your whole life, every step taken with the complete and unwavering confidence it will still be in the same place when you put your foot down?
That's something else.
The shaking kept going. Everyone was screaming and my first thoughts was to crouch down so I didn't fall over but Mary yelled and grabbed hold of me, I steadied her and someone else who grabbed my arm, realising I'd have to try and stay upright so I didn't pull us all to the ground.
During that shake I remember seeing some parked cars across the road rocking wildly up and down. I almost wanted to laugh.
That one was shorter than the big one and we got moving again very quickly. Mary embarrassedly apologised for 'just grabbing you like that' which I didn't really know what to say to. I didn't really mind but I suggested next time we crouch down.
"Maybe we should get out in the open."
I can't recall who of our group said it but it was most certainly a sentiment we all agreed with, especially when another shock rumbled beneath us.
We walked a little nervously over the bridge and followed directions of a staff memeber to the running track by the gym. We arrived to find everyone standing under the trees.
"Can we not stand under the trees?" Mary asked and I agreed. I couldn't recall seeing any trees come down in September's 7.1 but I wasn't about to risk it.
We headed down onto the main field area, somehow adding to our group as we did. Many people were still trying to contact their families with no luck. I offered my cellphone as I was on a different network but the lines were still jammed.
Still no luck. "The networks will be flooded with calls," I assured everyone, "that's the reason you can't get a hold of them. Remember in September how they crashed?"
Everyone seemed to be thinking that anyway. A few people were texting but weren't sure if they were going though.
A man from the University came over then to inform us we were all going to Ilam fields instead, over the other side of campus. I had noticed a lot of people hurrying to their cars and wondered if I should do the same.
I wasn't too keen on driving at that time though, after what my mother had told me. And I also wanted to stay with people. I'm not the most social person in the world but you'd be surprised how much you crave company during an experience like this.
We joined the crowds heading back the way we came. I was checking my phone to see if I could find out how large the quake had been. After September I had downloaded an app to track them. It colour-codes them based on intensity. 2 or less are green, around 3-4 is dark bluish. 4.8 or above is red- the redder the worse.
This one was bright red.
"Holy crap, 6.3!" I yelled out before I could think of a better or nicer way to say it.
Now, almost anyone could tell you a 6.3 was no good but after living through a 7.1, feeling 6700 aftershocks between then and now, and having a mother who obsessively checks the internet or my phone for the magnitude of each one I truly knew exactly how strong a 6.3 was.
"28 km east," I read out. "That's where I live."
"Really?" someone asked, "where do you live?"
"No." I frowned. "Sorry, I was wrong." I lived west of the city. 28 kms east was almost right in the city. I was just so used to the aftershocks being centred out by my house I had said it automatically.
I decided to try calling my house again and was surprised when I got through to my sister. "Are you okay?" I almost yelled down the line. "Mum's so worried, why did you call her?"
"Why, what's going on?" she asked.
"What do you mean? Didn't you feel it?" I asked in disbelief.
"That aftershock?"
"It's more than an aftershock, turn on the TV, do we still have power?"
"Yeah," she said in a confused tone, "Why?"
It took a few more minutes to convinces her how serious this really was but when I look back I can understand her disbelief. The fault line that ruptured in September was very close to where we lived. So if something happened, like 2000 or so aftershocks between then and today, we knew we were the worst hit. Half the time we had shocks prior to February, the "townies" didn't even feel it.
We continued walking, not crossing the bridge again but walking through the carpark.
"It's not an aftershock," a boy behind us was saying, "it's on a whole new fault and it's too long after and it felt too big for it to be an aftershock."
"It was 6.3," I told him, wondering what he meant when he talked about a new fault.
Note: He was right but I have no idea how he knew this so soon after it had hit.
"Wow, that is big," he said.
We had to cross a road to get to Ilam fields but it was easy as the traffic was bumper-to-bumper and at a complete standstill as people flooded the roads, trying to get to loved ones and houses.
We slid between the cars and made our way on to the field. People were gathered around the edges, still anxiously checking phones but we made our way to the middle, away from trees and other things that could fall as the faint rumble and jolt of another shock passed under our feet.
Our group was soon joined by more people, some in shock, most unable to go home and all wanting company.
I started reading off my TVNZ news app on my phone. The first update was that there had been another "massive aftershock" in Christchurch (the general response to that being "no shit"). The mayor had been thrown across the room he was in (clearly important information). People were "seriously injured" in the city and there were unconfirmed reports of fatalities. People had been seen walking around with blood running down their faces.
I didn't feel anything about hearing this. It hadn't registered in my mind at that point that this could actually be happening. Happening again but worse.
"No one died in September though," someone said.
She was right. We'd lived through one, we'd all survived, we'd pulled together and we were starting to rebuild. This wasn't fair to have it happen again. We weren't going to be that lucky twice.
"Yeah, but this one was… 28km east?" one of my German classmates asked, looking to me for confirmation.
I nodded.
"That's in the sea," another person said, looking worried, "if there was a tsunami we wouldn't get it here right?"
"I don't think so," I assured him, "and they haven't given a tsunami warning. Is it in the sea? I though the beach was further away?"
"Town sounds bad," someone else said.
Note: There were like 15 people sitting with us, I knew two names so there's a lot of 'someone's.
"The cathedral spire has come down," someone commented in an almost casual way.
"Really?" I asked, rather interested. At this point I was still in shock and hadn't quite processed that this wasn't like September 4th. I was also remembering the last earthquake to take a piece of our cathedral was in 1901 and it only broke off the very top. The model of this event was one of my favourite things in the city museum.
I never considered the cathedral would not remain in one piece for my lifetime. It is the one constant I have always seen in the city and even as an atheist I'm pretty damn proud of how impressive it looks- looked, standing tall and proud at the heart of the central square.
"Yeah, and the hospital too."
"What about the hospital?" Mary asked, "My Mum works there."
"It's been evacuated," someone told her, staring at their phone.
"No," the first person replied, "it's collapsed."
At this point Mary looked quite worried and I wanted to hit the person who said that. "The hospital wouldn't collapse," I told them both, "it's the most earthquake-proof building in the city."
Note: Once you've lived through a 7.1 you learn these things.
"Yeah, but the cathedral's definitely hit, a wall crumbled too, my friend's there."
That I believed, brick buildings were worst hit in September, if this one had been in the city the cathedral might have been damaged. It still had not occurred to me that this was midday and tourists might have been in it.
An official came over to our group then and announced that the students in the halls of residence could go back and the Uni was closed for the day. He said he couldn't give us any information about the rest of the week but we had been through this before. No one expected to come back that week.
Note: Three weeks later one of my classes resumed, the other three continued the next week.
"Well what now?" someone asked.
I shrugged and turned to Mary. "Did you want me to take you home? I can, though I'm only on my restricted."
Note: In NZ a restricted license allows you to drive alone but not with passengers.
Another member of our group laughed. "Look I don't think the cops will be too worried about that today," he assured me.
"Right." I nodded.
People started to leave. Some were heading for the halls which were still open and offering other students the use of their facilities until they could get in contact with family or flatmates.
"I think I'll be okay here," Mary told me, "I want to find my brother, he was supposed to be on campus today."
"Does anyone else need a ride?" I asked.
Emily, a girl from Cashmere who usually bused asked if the buses were still running.
"I can take you if they're not," I assured her.
Another boy was going towards the opposite side of town so he offered to take more people.
I got up and with Mary, Emily and another girl we headed towards the road which was now filled with bumper to bumper traffic moving a centimetre a minute.
"Are you sure you're okay?" I asked Mary when we reached the edge of the field.
"I'm fine."
"Well I'm going to give you a hug anyway," I told her.
She smiled and happily returned it. "Hey, can I get your phone number?" she asked.
I had just been about to ask the same thing as I wanted to know she was going to be alright.
Note: She told me via txt that night her family was fine but they had no water or power. Her house was liveable for the semester but I haven't talked to her since the holidays and it may now be in the city's red zone- meaning the ground is unsuitable for buildings. If that's the case her family will get paid the value of their land and house in 2007 (which is very good) and have to move elsewhere.
We said goodbye and Emily and I continued towards the bus stop.
"The Orbiter's there," Emily said, spotting the green bus, "that's my bus, I can take it."
"Doesn't look like it's going anywhere," I said, noting there were in fact, two of the green buses at the stop which didn't seem like a good sign. "We'll check, but it's really no issue to drive you home."
She probably thought I was being nice. I was, I would feel terrible to leave her with no way of getting home, especially on a day like this. But I also wanted to see the town. My route home took me almost straight into the rural outskirts of Christchurch. A small part of me wanted the excuse to drive around and see the destruction this shake had caused for myself. This was my city, I wanted to know what I was in for in the coming weeks.
I also was scared of driving alone- or even being alone at this point.
We walked to the second bus and stuck my head in.
"Are you moving?" I asked the driver, who just gave me the familiar stunned look I was fast growing familiar with.
"Do I look like I'm moving?" he asked.
"Well are you going to soon?"
"Not likely."
Emily and I continued towards my car.
"So where were you?" she asked, the first of many, many times the question would come up. I asked it as much as I heard it so I can't complain.
"German lecture," I said.
We continued towards my car, recounting our blow-by-blow experiences of the shake. Something that had become common after September and would be very much so in the following days too.
"Sorry I parked so far away," I said, feeling a tad embarrassed I had offered her a lift then made her walk five minutes to my car.
"That's okay," she said with a smile, "I'm pretty sure no one expected the day to go like this."
We got in the car and pulled out into traffic only to sit in one place for another five minutes.
"We need to go out that way," Emily told me, pointing the opposite way to where we were heading.
I nodded. "I think it'll be easier in this traffic if I loop around Bush Inn," I suggested, referring to the mall I worked at. It wasn't too far from Uni and the way the traffic was moving it seemed not only faster but safer to make three left turns than cut across the crowded road making one right turn.
Note: We drive on the left here.
"Oh! Wind the window down," Emily ordered me, waving to someone in a van going the other way.
She then proceeded to have a shouted conversation with a woman in a van who knew her family. Unfortunately after a moment traffic moved on.
I rolled the window back up. "That's a neighbour," Emily explained. "She's checking up on me, my parents are dropping my older sister off at Otago Uni, the won't be back until tomorrow, it's just me and my other sister."
"How old's she?"
"Thirteen," Emily replied, "she only had a half-day of school today." She checked her phone again.
"The lines are probably really jammed, I haven't heard from my Dad either. He works in town." I added, remembering the incredibly tall building in the centre of town my Dad worked in.
"The lines are really jammed," Emily agreed, "after the first one we couldn't get a hold of anyone."
Going down the small side street between the road Uni was on and the road Bush Inn was on was easy and we were quickly let into the bumper-to-bumper traffic on the other road and there we stayed spending about fifteen minutes to go a distance that usually took me thirty seconds.
As we inched past the mall I glanced over at my work and sighed.
"Darn, my work's still standing," I joked, trying to lighten the mood. (Actually I was kinda bummed but I'm not the only person who hates my job so whatever.)
"Where do you work?" Emily asked in amusement.
"That coffee shop there," I told her, nodding towards it. "no doubt we'll be back at work tomorrow."
"Won't they have to check the building?"
"Probably, I doubt our boss will care." I shook my head and explained how in the aftermath of September's earthquake my house had been flooding from a tank in our roof and my boss had not only told me it wasn't a good enough excuse for not coming in but then yelled at me for not phoning him properly. Then when I told him we had lost power for two days he had simply not believed me because they had got it back at 11am that day.
"You're kidding."
"I really wish I was."
Note: My boss is an ass.
We continued at a snail's pace, discussing various things. She had spent a year in France before coming to Uni, I told her about Uni life and what my first year had been like.
As we inched past the mall I noticed and add for CSI on a bus stop.
"Ha! CSI!" I laughed loudly and only a tad hysterically at the poster before I realised Emily was looking at me oddly. "Sorry, long story," I muttered. I'm used to driving alone.
"No, no, tell me about it," Emily said firmly.
Normally I would have just shook my head and told her she had to be there but then I realised what she was doing. She wanted to talk about something irrelevant, something to get our minds of reality.
I told her, taking as long as I could and explaining how I already knew CSI did things that were impossible but she didn't need to ruin it more for us.
"Actually I don't watch CSI anyway…" I finished after five minutes and about two metres of road covered.
"What class was this?" Emily asked.
"Linguistics," I answered.
"I'm doing that!" She told me. "First year."
"101 and 102?" I asked, "I did those."
"Were they good? "she asked, "Tell me about them," she ordered.
I tried to tell her about the classes in as much detail as I could manage, though I kept getting confused about which one was which.
The car started moving and I instinctively pressed my foot harder on the brake before I saw the car in front of me rocking too.
"Another one," Emily said nervously.
I nodded, glad I hadn't been moving. The aftershock passed and we inched further along the road, coming to another busy intersection. "Right here?" I asked.
Emily nodded and I pulled in to the right lane, wondering how on earth I was supposed to make the turn without traffic lights. The intersection was a complete mess, cars were jamming it, pointed in every direction. I waited for a few minutes before realising I was going to have to be assertive and nosed into the first gap I saw, earning and annoyed, albeit understanding look from the driver facing me.
We turned and continued along the road beside the mall carpark which was deserted. "Lights!" I cried in relief, looking ahead to see a functioning set of traffic lights.
"I wonder why those ones are working."
I shrugged. "Different grid? I'm just glad they are."
The lights hardly seemed to make much of a difference as we stayed completely still for up to three changes before inching forwards.
We were almost up to the front when the next shock hit and it was a big one. I reached for the hand brake at the same time Emily inhaled sharply and grabbed my hand. The car rocked worse than the last one and the traffic lights swayed alarmingly. Across the road I watched the windows of a building shudder in their frames. On the footpath people jumped away from the brick walls and crouched to the ground, jumping up and continuing immediately once it was over.
"Quick thinking with the hand brake," Emily told me, releasing my hand.
"Thanks," I muttered shakily.
"I kinda just grabbed you hand there…" she laughed a bit embarrassedly.
"That's alright," I told her honestly, "if you hadn't I probably would have."
The car started to rock again and I felt myself tense up. Each time I was excepting it to turn big again, like the last one… two hours ago by that time. The traffic light that extended over the cars was swaying again and Emily raised her eyebrows.
"I hope we don't get caught under that," she said.
Well we did but the next aftershock didn't come until we had just got out from under it. Though we were right next to the building who's widows looked like they might burst. I suppose that wouldn't have hurt us in the car but it certainly wouldn't have done anything good for our nerves.
During a long stretch of not-moving I called my step-brother and received word that he had heard from his mother, my Dad's wife, that he was okay. This was reassuring but I still would have liked him to contact me. He works in one of the tallest buildings in our city and with all the reports of destruction in the CBD I was still anxious.
Emily's phone went off a few minutes later. "My parents are on their way back up right now," she informed me, reading her text. "They were supposed to stay another night."
"Must have heard the news."
We spent a while in silence, the traffic moved a bit more freely for about ten minutes, which still only meant about 500 metres of movement.
The first sign of any real damage was the liquefaction. It was flooding the roads and footpaths and more and more keep coming up the longer we watched.
It was rather worrying driving through it. I kept a safe distance from the car in front of me and watched carefully as he drove through the murky water. With sink holes right in the middle of some of the roads I wasn’t going to take the chance that that flat, opaque water was actually hiding a four-foot-deep hole.
The next sign was the road, there were large cracks in it and was buckled in many places. Mostly the cracks seemed to run along the length of the road but at points we drove directly over some where the road and cracks and moved almost half a foot apart.
I wondered if I should be driving on them, not that I had much choice, all the roads were like that, I was lucky not to come across any sink holes though and the only point I was really worried was when I drove across a bridge which had separated from the road on both sides by several inches.
The roads were still gridlocked as we moved towards the hills, and even if they were I probably wouldn't have been driving much faster than I was with all the damage to the seal and the lack of functioning traffic lights. As such, we had plenty of time to watch the people on the footpaths.
Most were just wandering around, looking at the destruction with blank, dazed looks on their faces, unsure of what to do. There were clumps of people gathering around dairies and shops that sold essentials though many were getting turned away and I could see in some shops most of the merchandise was on the floor, no power either to process electronic transactions. A few walked past carrying milk.
"That's a good idea," I said randomly, "I should get some milk on the way home."
Still others were walking purposefully along, one outright running past us, desperate to get somewhere, to his family most likely.
A woman leading two young children across the flooded footpaths walked by when we were at a standstill. She wasn’t dressed for trudging through wet silt and water, but who was? She had a lovely top on and smart black pants with gorgeous black boots to finish it.
We watched as she came to a large sand volcano that had erupted right in the centre of the footpath and without hesitation stepped directly into it.
Without thinking I gasped and Emily cried, "oh, no".
"Those boots," I sighed, watching them get ruined by the silt as the woman lifted the children over.
"I know," Emily sighed with me.
Suddenly I laughed. "I'm glad you're not a guy," I told her, "I don't think a guy would have understood that."
Note: being sad over boots was a lot easier at this time than contemplating that there were hundreds dead in the city. This woman had clearly moved on from her shock and realised the boots meant bugger all compared to that.
My phone buzzed in its holder.
"Is that your Dad?" Emily asked.
I felt a brief surge of hope but my screen hadn't lit up which meant- "It's an e-mail," I said, shaking my head.
We still weren't moving so I removed it to check. It was a private message from LiveJournal from my friend K.
K had been the first person, from anywhere to contact me in September after our 7.1 too. I had been crouching under the table with my mother in the pitch black and 4am as aftershocks hit every minutes when her concerned e-mail had reached me. This one was more succinct than that one had been.
Subject: !!
Content: Are you okay?
I smiled. "Aw. My friend just e-mailed me from America to check if I was okay."
Traffic started rolling again and with the cell phone towers already strained I didn't risk replying right then.
"Are you good friends?" Emily asked. "Did you stay with her or something?"
"I've only spent three days in America," I told her, "I've actually never meet her. I know her from online."
Then followed the sometimes-awkward though this time thankfully not explanations of my comic book obsessions and how I knew K. Emily just found it nice that K was concerned about me.
We moved another three metres and it occurred to me that minor aftershocks might be reported in NZ but they probably wouldn't be in America. But I already knew this one was bad. And if it was news in the US, well, it clearly wasn't just another aftershock.
It was really, really bad. People were probably dead.
Now I started to feel sick.
"Keep going straight?" I asked Emily, trying not to think of what might be happening in my city.
It might sound a little sappy but though I'd always told people I loved my city (it's really awesome) I'd never really realised just how much until then.
We negotiated over another very-not-safe-looking bridge and Emily finally informed me we could turn onto a still busy but not gridlocked street.
"Oh, that's my bridge… there," Emily said, frowning at a taped of half-collapsed bridge as we drove past. "Maybe just pull in here, there a dairy too if you wanted milk."
I pulled in along a stretch of shops, the usual fish'n'chips store, barbers, butchers and of course, a dairy. We got out and headed towards the dairy where the owners were piling a trolley full of water bottles which was already in high demand.
I searched my wallet for cash as all the power was out when the was a rumble and a few screams but only the smallest of tremors. I turned to check on Emily but I couldn't find her for a moment until I saw her with a younger girl and a boy.
"This is my sister," she explained, coming back over. She did say who the boy was as well but I've forgotten. I think he was a neighbour.
"I'm getting water," I told them.
I moved towards the dairy, looking inside to see the lights off and merchandise everywhere. The owners had gotten a shopping trolley from somewhere and were piling drink bottles into it.
I got one bottle of water and one of milk. It was expensive but it was a dairy, still I had to wonder if the owners hadn't put up prices to suit demand (there was already quite a gathering of people demanding water).
"Are you sure?" I asked, wanting to make sure she was alright but also with a half-selfish desire to have a reason to stay in there, with all the people and where things were happening.
"I'm really fine," she said, "can I give you petrol money?"
"It's okay," I assured her.
We exchanged cell numbers and she went to see her house. I prepared myself for the difficult task of getting back into traffic. It took five minutes for a gap to appear, thankfully everyone was still driving slowly though. The very real fear of the road opening up under your car tends to make you cautious.
I was unfamiliar with this area but headed in the general direction I knew was right until I got lucky and hit a road I knew. I decided to go a rather indirect way home but as it would keep me on rural roads out of the clogged city roads I thought it might be quicker.
About halfway there the car in front of me suddenly pulled to the side to join a line of idle vehicles waiting on the side of the road. As I passed I realised it was a petrol station.
Panic buying hadn't taken long to set in. I looked at my own fuel gauge. It was way lower than it had been that morning, all the idling on the way to Emily's house hadn't helped, but it would get me home provided the roads weren't so bad out in the country.
My phone suddenly sprung to life, announcing I had somehow missed a call and had a message waiting. I saw it was from my Dad and didn't even bother to check the message as I pulled over, I just hit the call back button.
"Dad, are you okay?" I asked, as soon as he picked up.
"I'm fine," he replied, "I've just been taking people home and the phones are jammed I couldn't get hold of you. Where are you?"
"I'm going home via Halswell," I told him, "the roads are jammed through town, where were you?"
"I was at the Christchurch club having lunch," he told me, "half the building came down but it had already been cut off after September, so we were okay."
"They're saying people are dead in the city."
He paused then sighed. "Yeah, I think. The Pyne Gould building, you know the one across the river? That's collapsed, they were people in there. They'll be dead."
"Oh." What else was I going to say to that? "I'm going to try and get home, the roads are bad but less crowded out this way."
"Okay, talk to you tonight."
It was easier getting into traffic this time but I was desperate to get home now. I had to find out what was going on. Several damaged roads and severely cracked and bumped roads later I turned on the radio.
The mayor was on, I learnt there were people seriously injured and several buildings in the centre of the city had collapsed. The suburbs were badly hit with houses falling apart and liquefaction making the roads dangerous to drive on. Power was out and water mains were burst. The Civil Defence were already in action, the command bunker under the Beehive was already up and running and had been only ten minutes after the earthquake.
People were probably dead though it was unconfirmed at this time. The spire of the cathedral had come down and someone else came on saying that there were fears for tourists who'd been in the spire when it had collapsed.
I saw the cathedral in my mind. I'd seen it a thousand times, it is/was the heart of our city, it's technically Anglican but I've never found a person, whatever religious view, who didn't love it. I went though the square on the way from the bus exchange to my Dad's work, or on the way to the library through that little alley with the tiny barbers store, the little cafés and the catholic shop and strip club side-by-side that always made me laugh.
I'd been up the spire of course, everyone in Christchurch has at least once. And on the way through the square I'd always waved at the tourists up their with their cameras. I knew where the observation platform was and I knew that a whole lot more than just the tip had to come down for it to kill people in there.
Then, because the world wasn't depressing enough on that day already it began to rain.
The roads around my house were, as usual, deserted. But for the first time the absence of traffic made it feel ominous. Like one of those weird post-apocalyptic movies where the zombies ate everyone and you've only just woken up. Course I have an over-active imagination at the best of times…
The news was on when I got home, none of it was good.
Click to view"Shit," I said simply, staring in disbelief as buildings I used to know lay in rubble in my city.
"We're on CNN too," my sister told me, from her position by the computer where she was updating her Facebook page like mad.
"What happened out here?" I asked.
"I told you, it was just like a minor aftershock- a 4 or so."
I continued to watch the footage of buildings in ruins, almost crying when they showed our cathedral for half-an-hour or so before my Mum burst through the door.
"We're never leaving the house again," she told us, far more serious than joking before launching straight into what had happened since I'd spoken to her on the phone.
She works with intellectually disabled people and had been taking one of her clients from her work to a meeting where he was the client rep. on the board. He has to use a wheelchair but they left his main one at the work and they were planning on using one at the facility they were heading too. So when the road came up underneath her car she had no choice but to drive on and rip up the underside. She eventually just took the guy home and later found on the facility they were going to was severely damaged (and has since been closed down for good).
"We're on CNN," I told her once she was done, waving at the TV.
"You should tell everyone on the internet you're okay," my Mum said, "if it's on CNN they'll be worried."
That wasn't gong to be as easy I thought as my sister was clinging to the main PC like her life depended on it.
A few minutes later a distraction arrived in the form of a strange car coming up the driveway. I went out to meet it, wondering who on Earth was coming to our house on a day like this.
Two people got out, someone I didn't know and someone I know very well. My friend Ali who had stayed at our house for six weeks while my Mum and sister had been away.
"Ali!"
I ran up to her and gave her a hug, which she gladly returned.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, we're all alright," she told me, "no power but we're all alive. We just kinda thought we might come for a drive. This is Mitch."
I nodded at the unfamiliar man, no bothering to ask how they knew each other. I had other things on my mind. Ali told me things were just as hectic where she had been and that their house was still up but she needed to get out and had decided to come to my house to see me (and I'm not going to lie, that gave me a smile).
I invited them in, thankful that I had hard evidence at least one of my friends was safe.
"I was on Brougham St," Ali told me as they sat to watch the news with us, "I saw all these buildings just collapse in front of me."
"Shit." I wasn’t sure what else to say.
It was still too surreal. Too unthinkable that this would happen here, in my city. Again.
Eventually Ali had to leave to get back to her family and I got on the computer to update anyone who was worried about me.
"Is everyone okay?" My Mum asked later, after my own Facebook trawling and updating was done.
"I still haven't heard from Emma," I told her, going through the list of people I was worried about in my head and realising I was waiting to hear from an old school friend.
"I'm sure she'll be fine," my Mum said, though the words sounded more automatic than assuring.
The night continued much the same as that until we went to bed, I baked some more, muffins this time and phone calls and FaceBook messages were exchanged before I almost feel over from exhaustion.
--
End Note: Emma was fine, she was just busy helping her grandmother out of her ruined house on the day and contacted us the next afternoon. Uni went back four weeks later- in these conditions, though compensation was provided :P I spent the time immediately following the earthquake working and volunteering by baking and shovelling silt. The city is still closed off and we have no idea when we'll get back in.
So... there you go. Not the best thing I've ever written but like I said, I'm not good with personal stuff.