Earthquake! An outsider's experience
Back in “normality”, three days in Christchurch helping with the quake recovery all now seems a bit surreal. Tiredness after three long and intense days probably adds to that sense of surrealism.
Driving in to the middle of town from the airport on Thursday night, everything seemed just fine. Houses all standing just so, wheelie bins lined up on the kerb awaiting collection, street lights all working, daffodils amongst the trees in Hagley Park. What’s all the fuss about?
Then into town. Broken churches, displaced facades, cordon barriers, emergency tape, few people and very little traffic in sight. A ghostly hush. And this in the CBD of what One News tells us is New Zealand’s second-largest city.
The address that a colleague and I had been given to report to was behind a cordoned off section of Cashel Street. Featherston and Eltham boys are ever resourceful, so we skirted a variety of hurdles before waving at people inside the Ecan building and getting ourselves let in. It turned out that there was a back entrance that allowed easier access to the bunker.
Ecan’s Civil Defence bunker (they call it an ECC or Emergency Command Centre) was full of busy people in fluoro bibs all intently going about their business.
We were welcomed in by the Duty Controller and “logisticised”. We introduced ourselves to the duty Public Information Management (PIM) team, got an idea of the lie of the land and the roster, before heading off to our digs. We were shown the cracks in the wall before we left…
We would not have been surprised to have found ourselves on camp stretchers in Army tents somewhere. But no. Instead our barracks were the Crowne Plaza Hotel, requisitioned by Civil Defence for the influx of out-of-town building inspectors, welfare centre workers, emergency services personnel and so on. Boarded up lobby windows and cordoned off elevators were testimony to the fact that even robust buildings like this modern five-star hotel were not immune from the ministrations of Mother Nature.
Over the next three my colleague and I helped write media releases and strategy documents, updated web content, attended briefings – including the daily 3:00pm “Bob Parker Show” at Christchurch City and generally made ourselves available and useful. We visited welfare centres, provided media management advice about the now infamous Mongrel Mob family, liaised and advised as required. After a week, the locals were a bit tired and I think grateful to have a couple of fresh heads around.
All of the local staff had had personal trauma of varying degrees that they were dealing with between their Emergency Centre shifts. Despite that, they were without exception, consummate professionals while at work. While crisis may bring out the best in people, it takes its toll in other ways. I wish them all well as they try to get their jobs back to business-as-usual and their lives back to normal, whatever that may mean for quake-affected Canterbury.
The magnitude of the initial quake is hard for outsiders like me to comprehend. Some people talked of shaking so intense that they were unable to stand up, some saying the shaking went on for 15 or 20 minutes. A few said that while they were lying on the floor of their bedroom they thought “Goodness, if it’s this bad here, I would hate to be in Wellington right now!” a sentiment generally interspersed with a few more unpublishable Anglo Saxon words.
Based on probability and geotechnicality, this Canterbury quake could have been Wellington’s quake. It wasn’t, but perhaps it has touched the hearts and minds of Wellingtonians more powerfully than most non-Cantabrians, given our regular interaction with earth tremors. It was humbling to be able to make a small contribution to what is a massive event, the effects of which will be felt by many for years. The psychological impacts will be more significant than a few big cracks in the ground, disrupted aquifers or demolished heritage buildings.
To quote from a media release I wrote on Saturday: “Send money!”
Thousands of people need to rebuild houses and replace damaged possessions. While insurance will help some to some extent, there are many who will need more assistance. Sending stuff is not much help, particularly when there is no infrastructure in place to store or distribute it. Having money to spend with local businesses will help get the local economy back on its feet.
Learn more about the Red Cross Appeal at this link http://www.redcross.org.nz/cms_display.php
To quote from another media release I wrote last week: “Get prepared. It’s easy!”
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Originally Posted by White trash
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