Thanks for your kind wishes in the post below. This quake was a killer for sure. It was centred in Lyttelton, just over the hill from town and even though it was weaker than the first big one in September (6.3 vs 7.1), it was much shallower and closer to the City centre. The shaking was apparently twice as violent than September, hence the massive amount of damage and deaths. I was in our little 4 storey building when it struck, and I dived under my desk as a light fitting crashed onto my chair. The shaking was so violent I thought the building would come down, but mercifully it held. My colleagues and I vacated the buliding rapidly, and were met with a scene on the street that some US tourists later compared to 9/11, with the air thick with concrete and brick dust, debris all around, and hordes of confused people. Within minutes water and silt (liquefaction) began to erupt from the cracks in the pavements and soon the street and our carpark were awash. After checking our building was clear of people, we all departed while we still could, furiously texting our families to see how they fared (reception was on-again off-again but I managed to establish that Julie and both our teenagers were safe and well). The devastation throughout the city was and is difficult to comprehend....quite apart from almost every building suffering significant damage, the roads are cracked and split and impassable in many areas.
I made it home over the hill past several car-sized boulders in various places that fortunately blocked only half the road. I was relieved to find that at home, despite our proximity to Lyttelton, our house had only minor damage. We had no power until about 2 hours ago, so this is the first time I have visited here since the big event. Even as I type the aftershocks continue, nasty sharp blows like a punch every once or twice an hour, or more. Last night they eased and we had some sleep, whereas the night after the quake they came every 15 minutes, and were strong, so there was little sleep.
But we are alive and have a habitable house, and are hugely thankful for that. There are so many thousands who will be without houses or without running water or electricity for weeks or months to come.
Nice to come here for a break away from it all!
Here are some pics snapped on my cellphone. The building in the background is the PGG building, both sides of which collapsed around the central stairwell, which is the bit you see standing. They pulled a woman out unscathed yesterday evening after she spent 26 hours trapped under her desk. How many were killed in there we have yet to hear. The protective barriers you see on the street are in place from the last quake. Check out how the modern building in the right foreground has sunk on its left hand side:

The back of our building as the liquefaction begins:

Our car park, cracked and flooding with silt, with my colleague making a beeline for her car:

I'm on my way towards my car before it gets flooded:

Our city will never be quite the same, but keeping our spirits up will be the only way to go forward.
Regards
Neil

Hi Neil,

Thank God you, Julie, and your children are well. You've all been thru a lot. And, as you point out ... you've been blessed.

I'm glad that you have power back. Also glad you have dropped by with us.

God Bless,
Gary

Neil,

Glad you and your family made it through the disaster safely.

It's incomprehensible to go through an event of that magnitude. I've been through a half dozen hurricanes, two severe, and they don't compare to the damage reports that are trickling out from NZ.

Drop by when you can and we'll do what we can to give you a break.

Lon

Hi Neil,

I'm glad to know that you and your family are all ok. I hope the best for you, your family and your friends in the days to come. As you said, keep the spirit up and move forward...

We'll keep you in our prayers.

Julio

Hi Neil:

Very glad you and your family OK. My wife and I have some great memories from our honeymoon in NZ back in 2004 including Christchurch. We remembered the cathedral and the town square (with its life-sized outdoors chess set) well and were so sad to see the church ruined by the quake.

Hang in there . . .

-- Jim

Thanks guys. It's along road ahead for all of us here but I think we will get there and end up stronger for it.

I won't dwell on it any more other than to show you this spectacular shot taken seconds after the quake.



Regards

Neil

Hi Neil,

So ... what would that be? Literally dust? Crumbling concrete? That's an amazing shot.

GAry

Neil:

Is that photo taken from the mountaintop with the tram that goes up the side of it with a little cafe with observation decks etc. on top? We visited there but it was too rainy / foggy to see the city that day.

-- Jim

It's a frightening thing to have the good old dependable earth turn traitor on you, isn't it? I was in Alaska for the Denali quake, a mag. 7.9 back in 2002. We were very lucky that it was centered in a fairly remote part of the state, there was no loss of life. Condolances for the families of the missing, I hope that they find more survivors.

Gary, that is concrete and brick dust alright! I hate to imagine how many tons of falling debris caused all of that.

Jim, that shot will be from the Port Hills but a private house further west than the Gondola you visited. Pity you had a misty day, as the 360 degree views from the Gondola are truly spectacular.

Rotor, you are right about the earth turning traitor. It is the unpredictability of it all that is the worst. We have just experienced two more strong aftershocks in the last 10 minutes, and each time you don't know if they are going to develop into something major or will pass quickly. Puts you a bit on edge!

I will go now and sh-sh-sh-shake some more

Cheers

N-n-n-neil

For me, the worst ones are late at night when you've wake up from a deep sleep due to an earthquake. By the time you're really awake, it's usually settled down so you don't know if it was real or if you dreamed it unless something is broken or the ceiling lights are still swinging or something like that. I woke up in the middle of the night for an earthquake once when I was borrowing a couch at a friends house. I remember telling them the next day how loud the train was when it passed by in the middle of the night. Of course, they said "what train? there's no tracks near here". It took us quite a while to figure that one out.

With any luck, that'll be the worst for your generation. Quakes like that aren't typically a frequent affair, even for the "ring of fire" countries. BTW, if your house is a conventional stick built, it's not a bad idea to get into the crawl space or basement and check the J-bolts holding the sill plate to the foundation. After a big shake, you might find some that need replacing. I know that there's quite a bit of variation in how houses are built around the world, but whatever perimeter retaining system your place uses has gotten quite a workout.

That's right Neil .... check the marble pillars on those boxcar sized limestone blocks ...

Hello guys
Just an update from shaky Christchurch. I've been a bit quiet on the forum as there are one or two distractions down here! Since the February 22 quake the entire CBD (Central Business District) has been cordoned off and patrolled by Police and the army, while search and rescue efforts and the assessmment of the safety of buildings continues. This of course paralyses all of the businesses in the area. The best news is that one week after the quake, myself and one of my two business partners gained access to our building and were able to obtain our server, computers and some client files, thus allowing us to keep operating, which we are now doing from my colleagues house in town. Getting through the cordon was sheer luck. We had heard that other business operators had gained access as long as their building was not "Red stickered", meaning that on initial assessment the building is unsafe to enter (ours was Yellow, meaning limited accss was allowable). However, the official position was that no business owners were to enter the cordon, only household residents. We tested the cordon 3 times and were turned away on each occasion. Finally, we struck a young army guy who checked our ID and waved us through. We drove through the wrecked streets to our building, donned hard hats and hi-vis vests, and set to work. We loaded up my wife's 4WD to the gunwales in record time and retreated to my colleague"s house where we immediately began the task of setting up shop again. What a relief to get our stuff and with it the hope of not going bankrupt!!
We snapped a few pics while we were there. Here's the view from my shattered office:

Our back carpark, showing the depth of silt as a result of liguefaction. Those cars have been trapped there since the quake and won't be going anywhere for a very long time:

The view from our boardroom. That flattened building on the right, which housed a rental car company, was condemned after the September quake. This latest quake did the demolition job. The modern building on the left may be condemned:

Me smiling. Not much to smile about except saving our business!

Anywhere between 600 to 900 buildings in the CBD are to be demolished, around half of the businesses in the area. Whether our building will survive we don't yet know, but it may be around 9 months to a year before we get back in, if at all. A lot of work to be done.
Cheers
Neil
PS Our quake was a mere tiddler compared to what just hit Japan. But we probably share the same disbelief at how suddenly and catastrophically your city can be changed forever.

Hi Neil!

So glad you got your Stuff! That's a relief. What a mess.

Yeah ... if you know you can work ... there's hope.

Real mess in Japan. Thought mentioned this AM ... they are gonna be without power for a heck of a long time. You don't build power plants quickly. The world has really been on a rock and roll tear!

Glad you are healthy.

Gary

Neil,

I've had to do the check point drill too. My office was ground zero for a terrible hurricane and was patroled by the National Guard for weeks, what a hassle!

Maybe not as bad as Japan but bad enough. You seem to be quite the optimist; you guys usually make it.

Good luck,

Lon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2011 11:55PM by Bigbore.

You're lucky that your business can be conducted in an alternate location. I'm sure that the manufacturing concerns and the heavier industrial facilities are pulling their hair out, since that sort of equipment can't just be toted around in a passenger car like a computer can.

The Japanese thing is a bit worrying. We had a tsunami alert up here in Alaska the following morning, but there were no visible effects where I live. Given how well prepared the Japanese typically are about earthquake safety, the issues they're having with the failed nuclear plant don't bode well for similar designs in less quake-prone countries. Last I heard they were flooding the containment building with raw seawater, which sounds like a pretty last-ditch tactic.

"Given how well prepared the Japanese typically are about earthquake safety"

Building on the coast didn't seem very wise for a country with a well documented history of earthquakes and tidal waves. There may be a reason, both of Floridas nuclear power plants are literally on the beach, but the plant in Japan?

Lon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2011 05:05PM by Bigbore.

Just a thought:

If they are flooding with seawater ... then someone thought of that. Perhaps, they thought of that a long time ago ... as part of a "when all else fails senerio". Maybe that's why they put it on the beach. The surf would probably always be dependable. ;?)

I just turned and stared at the shop radio, friday ... when it was announced that Hillary had declared that the US was "sending coolant" to help with the nuclear power plant issues. Was late that evening, before I heard a talk show caller (Ex-Navy ... civilian Nuclear guy) call in to say that I wasn't alone in staring at the radio. The plants are "water cooled".

Gary

"Maybe that's why they put it on the beach. The surf would probably always be dependable. ;?) "

Not if it floods your emergency Cat Diesel.

Lon

Well, I wasn't on the design team, but; if I were building a Nuclear plant there ... I'd have put that Cat diesel on the third or fourth floor of a very solid independent structure. But ... nobody asked me ...

I think that Reactor 1 and Reactor 3 are nails number...what? perhaps four and five in the coffin of the nuclear power industry.

It's a damn shame too, as nuclear is about the only good short-term option that reduces carbon output by any significant amount. The greenies will undoubtedly beg to differ, but when you look at how many square miles of solar panels it takes to make five gigawatts of power (like the failed Japanese plant) you quickly get into a diminishing returns scenario as per the offset costs of making all those square miles of solar panels. Or windmills, or...you name it.

There are so many intrinsically safe/safer designs on the drawing board for fission plants that it's a horrible irony that the failure of these ancient-tech lightwater reactors will undoubtedly set back commercial nuclear development by decades, at least.

rotorhead Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think that Reactor 1 and Reactor 3 are nails
> number...what? perhaps four and five in the coffin
> of the nuclear power industry.
>
> It's a damn shame too, as nuclear is about the
> only good short-term option that reduces carbon
> output by any significant amount. The greenies
> will undoubtedly beg to differ, but when you look
> at how many square miles of solar panels manufactured by solar panels manufacturer it takes
> to make five gigawatts of power (like the failed
> Japanese plant) you quickly get into a diminishing
> returns scenario as per the offset costs of making
> all those square miles of solar panels. Or
> windmills, or...you name it.
>
> There are so many intrinsically safe/safer designs
> on the drawing board for fission plants that it's
> a horrible irony that the failure of these
> ancient-tech lightwater reactors will undoubtedly
> set back commercial nuclear development by
> decades, at least.

Hello friend I do agree with you.. There is no alternative of nuclear energy.. Renewable energy sources like solar and wind are less efficient to fulfill our needs..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/11/2014 06:31AM by EdisonBousk.

Hi Neil,
Since Edison brought this post forward - I wonder if you could give us an update of how you recovered. I'm sure you are still adapting to life after the shock.
Gary

Hi Gary
Thanks for thinking of us. It's hard to believe that it'll be 4 years in February since the big one. Life for us is pretty much back to normal, both at home and work, but for many it is still a case of awaiting house repairs and endless arguments with their insurers and the Government agency EQC. The rebuild of the centre city has finally started, although in its early stages, and there are still buildings awaiting demolition or being demolished around the town. There are large areas of parkland in the suburbs where the houses have been demolished and the land is deemed unsuitable for rebuilding. Road works are a way of life, as the entire infrastructure of sewers and storm water are being repaired, so you never quite know whether the route you took yesterday will be open today. We must be the road cone capital of the world, they are everywhere! A daily reminder of the quakes is that even the repaired roads are uneven and bumpy. They will probably remain this way for decades, as there is no money to fully resurface them after repairing the pipe-work so they are patched up instead.
But all in all there is a positive mood around the city, and the quakes have all but stopped. Onwards and upwards!
Cheers
Neil

Glad to hear that things are coming along as well as can be expected, Neil.

I understand that there has been some controversy as to which places are demolished and which are to be rebuilt, and that the official blueprint on how to rebuild Christchurch has become a grand scheme with more bureaucratic infighting than actual rebuilding going on.

What's your take on how things are going to turn out?

Shhhhhh ..... Neil is the one that wants to turn the whole place into a hunting Safari theme! That's what the city planners are resisting ....

Hehe

Gary

Actually, from the articles I read it seems like the legions of urban planner types that have gotten involved are trying to put a bunch of green space back into the downtown core. Unfortunately, it also sounds like they've taken so long to hash out the details that a lot of the businesses they're trying to attract have given up on the downtown ever being finished, and have relocated out to the surrounding neighborhoods instead.

Now all we need to do is sneak some wild boars into the new greenbelts, and they can have pig hunting right in the middle of downtown.

Sean, you are right, there is a master plan for the city which incudes green belts and precincts for Arts, Sport, Justice, Health etc etc. Too early to say how that will work out but there is some controversy around it all. And there are a lots of new buildings on the periphery of the city and companies tied in to long leases, so that will affect the repopulation of the central city. The Government will lead the charge by directing its various departments to lease premises in the centre, but the real worry is that the myriad of small businesses that used to populate the area in old cheap space won't be returning as there is no longer any such space available.

Unfortunately, no sign of any hunting opportunities in the green belt!

Cheers

Neil

Hi Neil,

How did that mall made of shipping containers fare?

Gary

Hi Gary
Still going strong, in fact bigger than before after it was partially relocated to make room for some new construction. Apparently it will exist in its present site for at least another year before re- building takes over, at which time it may relocate elsewhere in the city.
Cheers
Neil

I hope all of your family is safe Neil.

Thanks, all good florida.