CHC earthquake report
Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 2:29 am
OK peeps - here it is: Christchurch is a post apocalyptic wasteland, where the evil North-West wind whips up tens of thousands of tons of pig-farm smelling silt.
Travellers wear gas-masks, post-apocalyptic Gothic (Dust coloured) outfits and carry hi-muzzel velocity automatic weapons. People are dueling in the streets and collapsed supermarkets over the last bottle of water.
To travel out of town, we now meet at the exit of the city, and wait until enough people, vehicles and guns arrive to fight our way to the next town. Only those with cars or bikes of sufficient power and speed are likely to get through.
Vigilantes battle police and army personnel with home-made napalm, and WWII Bazookas...
</hyperbole>
No - Christchurch isn't on the first step towards Mad Max (aka Road Warrior).
I was fortunate to survive, because I was back at work. If the quake had hit 24 hours earlier, I would have been on the Paso, howling down Evans pass into Akaroa - the very epicenter of the quake. It is likely I would have gone off the side of the road, been killed by boulders or crashed in some other fatal way.
As it was, I was at my desk - which moved a metre away from me in the first shake, and then seemed to be all in my lap at once. The shaking was severe, and from the fire escape I could immediately see that the Cathedral was gone (I could view the top 2/3rds of the spire was missing) and that the city's tallest building was broken in two (Hotel Grand Chancellor).
My home was unaffected apart from no water - which returned last night. Let me tell you, bathing out of a bucket gets old really quickly - and the hot shower is the world's single greatest luxury!
This 'quake struck the eastern and southern and downtown areas hardest. It appears that up to half of the buildings in the downtown area will need to be destroyed. Likely 250 deaths, with over 170 confirmed.
You may well have seen more of the downtown damage than I have, as I don't own a TV!
However, the suburbs badly affected are in real trouble. The damage, if not to homes, is to the roads and infrastructure. Estimates of up to 1 million tons of liquifaction silt/mud have worked their way to the surface - usually in mini geysers up to half a metre tall. The volume of water and mud/silt ejected in just a few minutes is astonishing.
What it has done to Christchurch roads is catastrophic, with up to 25 Billion dollars of damage estimated.
Some streets don't even HAVE streets now; they have the shattered remains of what once was a street, but is now little more that a muddy jumble of smashed concrete ruptured asphalt, mounds of silt and gigantic holes and cracks from which is gushed.
I have seen holes in roads large enough to swallow an SUV.
Riding a bike is by far the fastest way to get around, as traffic is a nightmare: a 10 minutes drive could take you an hour at least. It is pretty nasty though. The drying silt is a dust-storm outside, and it smells variously like a pig farm (strange!) or sewerage (understandable seeing as a lot of that came up with the silt from ruptured sewer lines.
Fortunately, everyone I know is OK, with the exception of a work colleague who suffered a heart attack 3 days later as the stress of a destroyed home affected him badly. His prognosis is good however, but he is still in intensive care.
Riding around town requires maximum attention now, as the road surfaces are not guaranteed to be bike friendly, nor are the befuddled and scared drivers who seem to think that because they are sad, road rules no longer apply to them.
People failing to secure an exit from an intersection before entering into it get screamed at by equally befuddled and stupid drivers at every busy intersection you care to cross.
All in all, a very bad week for Christchurch, and while there are more bikes on the road this week, the conditions for happy and care free riding have completely disappeared.
I will try for the Wednesday Night ride tomorrow in the hope it is still on, but I doubt it will be.
Before the quake an insane wobble-head drove through a red light and took out my Porsche 928. It's still drivable, but damaged - including the brand new wheels. AARGH.
The bike is running like a trooper though, albeit covered in a thin layer of impossibly fine silt dust. As it just about everything today.
The city is recovering brilliantly though, and there are many wonderful stories of heroism and bravery - as well as the hard-grind that infrastructure repair has become.
I'll be buying a house in May or June, and I'll be buying one in a location where there has been no damage after two quakes,. and it'll be a wooden house with a tin roof!
I'm very fortunate to have come through the earthquake relatively unscathed.
Cheers all!
Chris/Mobius
Travellers wear gas-masks, post-apocalyptic Gothic (Dust coloured) outfits and carry hi-muzzel velocity automatic weapons. People are dueling in the streets and collapsed supermarkets over the last bottle of water.
To travel out of town, we now meet at the exit of the city, and wait until enough people, vehicles and guns arrive to fight our way to the next town. Only those with cars or bikes of sufficient power and speed are likely to get through.
Vigilantes battle police and army personnel with home-made napalm, and WWII Bazookas...
</hyperbole>
No - Christchurch isn't on the first step towards Mad Max (aka Road Warrior).
I was fortunate to survive, because I was back at work. If the quake had hit 24 hours earlier, I would have been on the Paso, howling down Evans pass into Akaroa - the very epicenter of the quake. It is likely I would have gone off the side of the road, been killed by boulders or crashed in some other fatal way.
As it was, I was at my desk - which moved a metre away from me in the first shake, and then seemed to be all in my lap at once. The shaking was severe, and from the fire escape I could immediately see that the Cathedral was gone (I could view the top 2/3rds of the spire was missing) and that the city's tallest building was broken in two (Hotel Grand Chancellor).
My home was unaffected apart from no water - which returned last night. Let me tell you, bathing out of a bucket gets old really quickly - and the hot shower is the world's single greatest luxury!
This 'quake struck the eastern and southern and downtown areas hardest. It appears that up to half of the buildings in the downtown area will need to be destroyed. Likely 250 deaths, with over 170 confirmed.
You may well have seen more of the downtown damage than I have, as I don't own a TV!
However, the suburbs badly affected are in real trouble. The damage, if not to homes, is to the roads and infrastructure. Estimates of up to 1 million tons of liquifaction silt/mud have worked their way to the surface - usually in mini geysers up to half a metre tall. The volume of water and mud/silt ejected in just a few minutes is astonishing.
What it has done to Christchurch roads is catastrophic, with up to 25 Billion dollars of damage estimated.
Some streets don't even HAVE streets now; they have the shattered remains of what once was a street, but is now little more that a muddy jumble of smashed concrete ruptured asphalt, mounds of silt and gigantic holes and cracks from which is gushed.
I have seen holes in roads large enough to swallow an SUV.
Riding a bike is by far the fastest way to get around, as traffic is a nightmare: a 10 minutes drive could take you an hour at least. It is pretty nasty though. The drying silt is a dust-storm outside, and it smells variously like a pig farm (strange!) or sewerage (understandable seeing as a lot of that came up with the silt from ruptured sewer lines.
Fortunately, everyone I know is OK, with the exception of a work colleague who suffered a heart attack 3 days later as the stress of a destroyed home affected him badly. His prognosis is good however, but he is still in intensive care.
Riding around town requires maximum attention now, as the road surfaces are not guaranteed to be bike friendly, nor are the befuddled and scared drivers who seem to think that because they are sad, road rules no longer apply to them.
People failing to secure an exit from an intersection before entering into it get screamed at by equally befuddled and stupid drivers at every busy intersection you care to cross.
All in all, a very bad week for Christchurch, and while there are more bikes on the road this week, the conditions for happy and care free riding have completely disappeared.
I will try for the Wednesday Night ride tomorrow in the hope it is still on, but I doubt it will be.
Before the quake an insane wobble-head drove through a red light and took out my Porsche 928. It's still drivable, but damaged - including the brand new wheels. AARGH.
The bike is running like a trooper though, albeit covered in a thin layer of impossibly fine silt dust. As it just about everything today.
The city is recovering brilliantly though, and there are many wonderful stories of heroism and bravery - as well as the hard-grind that infrastructure repair has become.
I'll be buying a house in May or June, and I'll be buying one in a location where there has been no damage after two quakes,. and it'll be a wooden house with a tin roof!
I'm very fortunate to have come through the earthquake relatively unscathed.
Cheers all!
Chris/Mobius
Within 15 minutes I returned to bartending for the next 2 1/2 hours and made $220 in tips! 
