Images & Report: Christchurch’s Shaky Weekend

Wilmer St. Photo: Emily Hartley-Skudder

Christchurch’s Shaky Weekend

September 6th, 2010

By Talia Shadwell

The earthquake that rocked Canterbury early Saturday morning had Riccarton students Scarlett Moody, Lilly Pomeroy, Samantha Keepa and Taygen Hughes shrinking in the doorways of their Balgay St flat.

Their power cut out, the girls conjured up some candles amid rolling aftershocks.

Corner Salisbury and Madras. Photo: Emily Hartley-Skudder

Finn Erikson, also a student, recalls the initial jolt which registered 7.1 on the Richter scale,

“At first I thought it was a heavy truck driving past, but then the floor started to shake and there was this unbelievable rumbling sound. I had to clamber to get a hold on a door frame. The whole thing probably lasted a minute.”

Nick Gibbons, 31, was at his inner city residence when the earthquake hit, and gave his firsthand account of the aftermath,

“We stayed up until the early hours and decided that we’d go out and take some photos. We walked up Victoria St as we heard buildings there had fallen down but failed to get back into the city and were left wandering the streets.

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The whole city has been absolutely deserted for the last couple of days, it’s really weird. The city is desolate. I’m standing on my balcony and can’t see any people, any traffic, nothing.

It’s totally silent. I can only hear an alarm in the distance that’s been going for two days. I’ve seen about six people. It’s like [the film] 28 Days Later.”

Wrecked shop facades, Inner city ChCh. Photo: Emily Hartley-Skudder

Others reported initial anxiety for loved ones in Wellington. Scarlett was at first concerned that the powerful quake was only the periphery of the shakier city’s long prophesied “big ten”.

Daylight revealed the severity of the situation for the residents of the inner city and rural areas, but with some streets reported impassable, few were able to survey the damage.

Birch St, New Brighton. Photo: Emily Hartley-Skudder

At Ilam Lifecare rest home, staff struggled to provide breakfast for 140 elderly residents.

News that the University of Canterbury had closed its doors to students was received with delight, many students happy to have gained an extra week of holidays.
Sunny Riccarton’s streets resounded with revellers cheering at every aftershock.

By noon, one third of the city had regained power and even McDonalds had reopened. The drive-thru lines greatly exceeded those of a supermarket nearby where crowds had earlier jostled in desperation for bottled water.

By nightfall, many bucked the civil defence imposed curfew. Students at a Paeroa St party hastily quelled the flames of a couch fire, apparently sobered by persistent aftershocks.

Stuck on Birch St, New Brighton. Photo: Emily Hartley-Skudder

Yesterday morning, Antony Leigh, 20, took advantage of reopened petrol stations to join the concerned hordes hoping to catch a glimpse of the rubble.

Touring the city from Riccarton to New Brighton, Antony drove over many cracks in the roads and encountered devastated facades. Bricks littered some streets while others remained untouched. Chimneys, already out of favour with Environment Canterbury regulations, had crashed to the sidewalks across the city.

On Sunday afternoon, Bernie, a resident of Birch St, New Brighton surveyed his water logged street. He and his neighbours were unsure when they would receive assistance, but were confident that the council, who had previously “rubbernecked” at their damage earlier that day, would come to their aid. They were grateful for the efforts of the civil defence, conceding “these things take time and tolerance”.

In the meantime, life for the girls at Balgay St has resumed almost as normal. It is only continued tremors, the pans of water strewn about their kitchen and some rather ominous cracks in the chimney that reminds them “how lucky we are”.

Rubble in Chrischurch CBD. Photo: Emily Hartley-Skudder.

ENDS

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