Aftershocks

There are now three days in my life that I will never forget;  JFK’s assassination, 9-11, and the Christchurch earthquake.  When we arrived in New Zealand, people were still talking about the September 2010 quake, a kind of collective PTSD that was heard in cafes, airports and city streets - a comparison of notes of where they were when the “big one” hit.  That 7+ magnitude quake left a lasting impression on the collective conscientiousness.  The quake lasted 40 seconds, caused tremendous damage, but no one lost their life.  Christchurch this month had the look of a war zone, with barricades along city streets cordoning off unsafe buildings.  We were impressed with the resilience of the people and the town.  Life proceeded with minimal difficulty.  Buildings were damaged and work to repair the damage was underway. The town was pretty much back to normal.

I went into the office in the morning and Mandy went to the mall. We had a group presentation at 11AM after which Milo and I went to lunch.  I left Milo, stopped by the bank and took the elevator to the 5th floor of the engineering building .  I stepped off the elevator and into the reception area. Then the shake started.  We had been through a 4.5 quake last week and a few threes, so initially I thought it was a minor shake.  I turned to see a professor talking to a student outside his office and as the shaking intensified, he took the student by the head and pulled him into the doorway.  The next instant a light fixture crashed to the floor where the student had been standing.  The shaking intensified and I hugged a column to maintain balance and the shaking intensified again. I remember reassuring myself that these buildings housed Canterbury Civil Engineering and these people are the worlds experts.  Well, fatalism took over and resigned me to my fate of being trapped in the rubble of my Erskine Fellowship.  The shaking stopped. I looked in the secretary’s office and saw incredible devastation – filing cabinets - all books everywhere. Thankfully, Rebecca was still at lunch.  I ran down the hall toward my office looking in the other offices as I went, no one was hurt. Stepping over furniture in the office I grabbed my computer and back to the hallway.  A professor from downstairs came up the end of the building ordering everyone out of the building. We ran down the stairs and out to the street.  The Civil Engineering water tower was spewing water.  I saw Milo outside and invited him to our apartment across the street.  Milo brought Morris from the department, Roberto  showed up with a friend from Iowa State, and Gordon walked over form the computer science department. Roberto and Gordon are fellows staying in the same compound at the Academy Lodge.  Roberto is an earthquake specialist from GaTech.  The phoning started.  Mandy reported she was ok, exiting the Mall with no injuries.  We milled around and chatted – all a little shell shocked from the event. Mind you, we had no news of the severity of the situation, we just knew there had been a sixer at least.  Power was off.  I shot off a post before my battery died.  Milo could not locate Victor and George (his kids) so he jumped in the beater Mitsubishi to try to get to his side of town.   He reported “all safe” an hour later.

Mandy showed up in 30 minutes and we called Lucas to let him know we were o.k. As I was talking to him the 5.7 aftershock started. “F***,  goodbye!” were my words as I dropped the phone and dived out the door.  That one was bad.  We lost breeko blocks in the main room.  Happily, Gordon’s wife staggered in, visibly shaken from her 2^nd floor mall experience.  Glass everywhere, all merchandise in the floor. Roberto lectured us on the dangers of such a shallow quake since surface waves don’t lose energy in the bedrock.  Liquifaction – a serious problem from the 2010 quake is a main concern.  And, of course, the Richter scale cannot capture the severity.  We had huge accelerations and the energy was far worse than the 7.2 in September. Try the blog http://eqclearinghouse.org/20100903-christchurch/ for details.  Roberto headed to town with a radio and a camera.

I called Lino and he was able to read the web over the phone to give some news of the quake.  When I heard Lyttelton was near the epicenter, my heart sank.  We were in that wonder old port Sunday.  Haven’t posted that blog yet, I will do it when Christchurch can spare the bandwidth.  The timeball station is destroyed – so sad.

With our Erskine troupe in hand we walked around the block looking for food or any open store.  It was impossible to judge the severity without information. When we got back to the Academy Lodge, the Barbie was set up in the parking lot, and all available reserves we “on the table.”  Brats, gin and tonic, shrimp, wine and salad.  We stood in the rain and chatted, ate, and the viewed the devastation when the electricity came back on about 6PM.  It is raining. It is cold. One visitor was at the CTV building and stepped out for a smoke. The cigarette saved his life.  Rescue workers were signing us up for empty beds, we expect several visitors tonight.  These people know how to respond.

We have no idea what the future will bring.

We have to stay off the internet to conserve bandwidth for emergency workers and families.  State of emergency for 5 days,  at least.  Water will be a problem.

Roberto, the Captain, and Gordon - wonder when we can start teaching again.

This is from our Sunday trip to Lyttelton - Time Ball now destroyed.

Lyttelton

First day of class!

ashburton river

Hard to get into this - just yesterday when the earth stood still. No more.
Tremors continue.