I've never been one to keep quiet in the corner. I always have opinions and I like to share them. But I always try to share them in a balanced way and listen to others too. So I thought, hey, I really should have a blog. No idea where this is going to go, but life took a curve ball for me, my family and every resident in Christchurch on 22nd February 2011 so life's journey just changed direction or took a curve at the very least. But its all part of life's challenges and through all this we will get stronger.
My family got lucky this time - we live in a relatively unaffected suburbs and despite having slightly worse damage this time around it really has been put in perspective and can now be termed minor in the scheme of things. My daughters school got lucky - though we didn't think so after 4th September when the school was wrecked and subsequently demolished but we now have a school in prefabs all on the original site which functions fine and the pre fabs were happy to bob around on their foundations in the latest Earthquake. There are now many schools worse off and my daughters school will happily live with prefabs for a decade or more now I think. Also none of us were in the CBD. I think those in the CBD have a totally new perspective on the whole disasters, as to those on the "East Side" as its now become known. But we don't always get lucky - perhaps I'll share those stories one day.
So life carries on in Christchurch with a "new normal". Many schools will return this week, we get used to traffic as bad as Auckland - no idea where that comes from given the reports in the paper suggest 60% of Christchurch residences are not occupied (perhaps that is an over exaggeration), the cordon slowly gets reduced, though its not open access, businesses reopen - often in new places but we now avoid high rises, car parking buildings and shopping malls. There are no after school activities so we find there is less taxi driving and more time sitting around talking. For many families they are farewelling loved ones and then adjusting to life without them. Some people have left Christchurch temporarily, some will never return, others will still be asking the question whether to stay or go, those left behind and staying question the sense of those who have relocated to Wellington - perhaps those people forgot the even bigger fault line that runs straight under that city - its known and its big and their buildings are no better than those lost in Christchurch, but in times of shock and stress we all do interesting things :) They feel safe and at the end of the day that is what's important.
One question I ask myself, because unless we got an amazing job offer elsewhere, I don't think we are on the move, is what could I offer with my skills to be part of the redevelopment of the city? I haven't figured that out yet, but in the meantime I am part of a busy working family hopefully bringing up 3 (hopefully) resilient kids who will benefit from the redevelopment of a better, safer Christchurch. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a sustainable, carbon neutral city as a legacy.......................a pretty big dream, but it takes a big dream to start big projects.
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I feel lucky to be living in an an area that has not liquefied, in an original villa that flexed with both earthquakes and is still livable in, despite a few cracks in the plaster celings. We had nothing damaged in the house on the first Sept Shake; carnage on the second. But it is just stuff.
ReplyDeleteLiving without power was interesting for 10 days...
Not sure which is better really - no power or no water? Sort of which would you prefer to be- blind or deaf?
Short answer is I don't want to choose either.
What I am gad about was having gas hobs to cook with and boil water.... and a two stroke generator gave us enough to power minor essentials - computers/ cell phones and keep the fish alive!
I suspect we are in for an interesting time ahead - but will stay and yes, would like to help. I would love to see an eco friendly, safe and vibrant city be rebuilt, with enough heritage to remind us of the past... safe heritage - too many could die when another big shake comes along. I think now of when, not if. You are right - Wellington should too.... and Napier, Palmerston North and all those places up there that get earthquakes.
Even after Sept, it is scary how many people were still unprepared for the latest one - and none of us expected that the promised 6 would turn out to be so much worse than the 7.1. Shows how little we understand about earthquakes, PGA, liquefaction and Mercalli scale. I hope the rest of the world has learned something from this too...