Christchurch, NZ: Earthquake.

[John Farrell]

On another forum, a link was posted to a picture of the city, taken from the hills to the east just after the quake
i.imgur.com/0vZbD.jpg
It shows the dust rising from collapsed buildings.
Christchurch was a city with a wealth of heritage buildings. Most have collapsed.
Modern office buildings have also collapsed.
www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/image.cfm?c_id=1&gal_cid=1&gallery_id=116929#7381709

[Deleted]

That photo is spectacular. It's almost like the dust marks the main fault line.

Wayne

[daveh]

I am pleased everyone we know from here is okay, though I feel desperately sorry for those who have lost family and friends.

[mickeyobe]

John,

Is there anything at all that we, half a world away, can assist or aid?

Mickey

[photax]

John, the panoramic picture looks eerie-beautiful. You are able to reconstruct the historic buildings, but nobody is able to bring back life. What a loss.

MIK

[John Farrell]

Mickey - at the moment the central part of Christchurch is cordoned off. There was a military exercise going on not far away, and the NZ army, and soldiers from Singapore, who were involved in this are working there. There are recovery teams from Australia, Japan and Britain working in the cordoned area with the local emergency services, with teams from the USA expected soon.
The epicentre was near Christchurch's port, Lyttelton, which has been extensively damaged. A NZ Navy ship was in port, supporting the military exercise, and the crew have been supporting the residents of the town.

[nikkortorokkor]

This is the shop I worked in for many years, I've been trying to reach the owner and have finally heard that he is (naturally) pretty upset but physically unhurt. His house is also badly damaged.

I saw the photo fleetingly on TV and chased it down to here.
tvnz.co.nz/national-news/live-updates-christchurch-quake-day-three-4039493/photos
The fallen facade has been repeated all over the CBD. Being lunch hour, many people were on the footpaths beneath.
Once I make contact, I'll probably head south to try & help clean this mess up.
Aside from the true tragedy of maybe 300 dead in a city of less than 400,000, these small tragedies, a lifetime's hard work destroyed, are going to resonate throughout the community.

MT

[daveh]

Michael, it is easy to see why many did not survive the quake. Imagine anyone sitting in that car.

We have just been tiling the upstairs toilet. As I was doing it I was thinking how heavy everything is. The old plaster that came off must have been several hundredweight. I started wondering just how heavy the whole house would be. Some poor people have found out to their cost how heavy their houses are.

Dave.

[colray]

A dark-day for NZ.. mother nature has been a real bitch ....

[nikkortorokkor]

Col, I feel like a bird of ill omen; Over the last two decades I've lived in Bundaberg, Brisbane, Northern Vic., and Christchurch. All these places seem to have taken a spanking from Mother Nature over the last 12 months.

Dave, that has been the tragedy. The 'heritage' buildings, fought for so tenaciously by the city's citizens, have proved fatal. As one engineer put it, "immensely strong against gravity, very weak against side loadings". This quake was a shaker, not a jumper - 3G side loadings in a split second. Anyone near a brick facade had no chance. putting this in context, although Christchurch was billed the "English City", its architecture had more in common with the Western US i.e. commercial buildings began as square wooden sheds with false fronts and grew into brick buildings with facades. Oddly, many people still cling to their heritage buildings, and mourn the loss of these fatally flawed structures.

MT.

[PeterW]

Now the dust has settled in Christchurch and people have had time to drawn breath they must be asking themselves about property insurance.

Will they be covered by their normal household or business policies, or will the insurance companies try to wriggle out under the infamous "Act of God" clause?

Do you happen to know, Michael?

PeterW

[Deleted]

I remember from the last big San Francisco quake and a smaller one that hit our area in the 1980s, the buildings that seem to suffer most are the ones built on fill--as along the edges of bays. You would think rock would transfer more of the jolts but fill soil tends to liquefy in a quake. In the quake that hit us, we had just moved to a house on top of a rocky hill. Plus the house was of "post and beam" construction. Rather than the support beams resting on a perimeter concrete foundation, they are held up by dozens of short posts--each resting on a small concrete footing. When the quake hit our house swayed a little but no serious damage was done. Our previous home a few miles away had been built on a delta where a creek joined a river--essentially fill. I talked to the new owner after the quake and he said the house felt like an "old shoe being shaken by a puppy!" No one was hurt but the house suffered some expensive damage.

We live about 250 miles west of Yellowstone Park where there is a lot of seismic activity. Researchers say the region is actually moving west and will eventually be where we now live--in about two million years.

W.

[John Farrell]

Peter - we have an organisation here called the "Earthquake Commission". www.eqc.govt.nz/
It is funded by a levy on insurance, and provides extra insurance for those with cover from an insurance company. Sadly, those without insurance are not covered.

[daveh]

Michael, you old work place proves the wonder of wood as a material. The brick is gone, but the wood looks almost untouched. Several years ago there was a family from Britain which went on the holiday of a lifetime. They had a week or two in Aus (forest fires) then off to San Francisco (earthquake). Are you related?

John, they are certainly wonderful photos. The reason behind them is awful, but in the final analysis the photographs have to be taken. Thanks for the links.

Dave.