Christchurch residents - what will you do?

[Brett]

So clearly much of the residents of the Christchurch/Canty region have been affected/severly affected by the recent quake, some will be severe loss of property, many will have utilities disrupted, others will have annoying but repairable property damage and then of course there is the loss of life.

What is clear is that:

A) Chch is unsuitably places as a city given the geotechnical elements it sits on in the present way it is/was built. To rebuild would require intensive works in ground stabilisation etc. but none of this would change the fact that it is not far off the water table and is in effect an alluvial river bed. However, clever engineering could come up with good solutions for buildings that mitigate a lot of this.

B) Cantabrians and in particular those in Chch have had their nerves absolutely frayed by continual and persistent tremors and there must be many who are stressed to the point of breaking from it as they don't really get to "relax" as these tremors keep everyone on their toes.

C) Central Chch, however it is redeveloped, is going to take time to repair. Businesses will be displaced, there is going to be not insignificant disruption to work places and a large area of the city is not going to feel restored for a long time.

D) There are many people displaced from their own properties due to damage and are currently shacking up with family and friends which cannot last forever and their will be a housing shortage in the greater Chch region.

NOW...I do not mention any of the above to antogonise anyway or be in any way insensitive. I think that Cantabrians have been immensely strong throughout this ordeal and I take my hat off to you and the many many people down there who have been strong and resolute and got stuck in and helped out. In fact, I doubt the above is a new revelation to anyone.

So, the question, will you be staying in Chch moving forward? Or has this latest upset given you resolve to move on to somewhere where you can finally rest easy away from the tremors and constant fear of the earth moving? If so, where would you consider moving to and at what point do you think you would return?

[Shadows]

The fact is that anywhere in the country could be affected by either earthquakes, volcanoes, or both.
Where do you suggest everybody should go?
Aussie could be a choice if you feel like running from bush fires I guess.
I'm staying put, I'm wasn't here for the bricks and mortar anyway.

[onearmedbandit]

I'm staying, as is almost everyone else I know. A lot has been made of the two big collapses, the PGC and CTV buildings, but very little has been made of the other (major majority of) modern buildings that are still standing strong. Sure there is a lot of destruction in the CBD, but a lot of the buildings within that zone were built way before current building standards. In fact I think 50% of buildings with the CBD were built before these standards.

You can drive for hours around the city looking at absolutely no damage whatsoever. Or you can travel to the badly affected areas and see lots of damage. This city will rebuild, it will rebuild where it is. It will take years to return Christchurch to what is was before, maybe up to 15yrs. But in the lifespan of a city, that is but a blip in time.

What concerns me the most is that changes to our infrastructure (like increasing the width of major arterial routes) will now not see the light of day for years to come. Mind you if a third of the city leaves then we won't need to worry about that so much.

[EJK]

I'm staying. Got lots of work to do here (for now).

Can't go on a vacation to Queenstown nor sit on my ass and watch TV while the world go by.

[Flip]

If adopted your logic Brett nobody would live in a city with a known fault line or an active volcano.

As an engineer I'm looking forward to the challenge of making Christchurch the greatest garden city in the world.

I don't believe you understand just how strong the Feb earthquake was. The city was subjected to an acceleration of 1.8g, when the Richter scale is corrected for depth it had an adjusted value of 9.2. In any other country apart from Japan there would not have been 3 buildings left standing and the casualty's would have been 1000% higher.

IMHO Christchurch has had a major earthquake and survived. Weather the citizens fight or flight is largely up to how they cope in the weeks and months after the incident.

[Subike]

My Mothers family came here on the first four ships.
My Fathers family came here as indentured workers from Poland when Napoleon went to war. They dug by hand the ditched to drain the swamps.
The place was a swamp, coverd with brambles, no running water, no roads, no buildings. Yet they stayed and made it work.
They lived in tents, dug out latrines, built mud houses, harvested whaterver they could grow for food, they made it work, they built our cities foundation of people.
They had a vision the to build a town for their children and their grandchildren that was better than the towns they had left behind in england and europe.
Towns full of filth, disease, polution, coruption and war.
Their vision of the future is our reality, let our vision of the future be our grandchildrens reality.
Did NewO'leans move after the floods? nope
Did SanFransisco move after their 7.4 quake? nope
How many cities devistated bt disasters move? not many.
Why move? We are part of nature, we adapt better than any other life form on the planet, but we forget that we are part of the planet, not seperate from it.
Christchurch will rebuild because we can adapt, learn and go on.
Many will never stop calling it home, because it is home, many will leave, ...but as mentioned, to where??? NZ is an earth quake zone peroid.
There is a lot of reactionary coments happening at the moment, ask this question again in three months time, and you might get the bums rush for being a stirrer.
Christchurch is my Family home, Christchurch will be rebuilt and I will still be here to see it grow, better, greener, safer than it ever was.
The Garden City
Lots of room for parks and gardens now in the CBD , and oppotunity to shine!

[Big Dave]

What a pickle.

I was living just South of Newcastle NSW when the quake hit there. Killed a dozen people and munted Hunter Street. (The chance went by).

The City changed markedly. All the commerce moved out of the CBD to the Malls and suburban centres and the inner city was redeveloped as Condos and units over the next 20 years.

If there's a positive - It actually changed the place for the better in the long term. Sure didn't seem so at the time.

[ellipsis]

My Mothers family came here on the first four ships.
My Fathers family came here as indentured workers from Poland when Napoleon went to war. They dug by hand the ditched to drain the swamps.
The place was a swamp, coverd with brambles, no running water, no roads, no buildings. Yet they stayed and made it work.
They lived in tents, dug out latrines, built mud houses, harvested whaterver they could grow for food, they made it work, they built our cities foundation of people.
They had a vision the to build a town for their children and their grandchildren that was better than the towns they had left behind in england and europe.
Towns full of filth, disease, polution, coruption and war.
Their vision of the future is our reality, let our vision of the future be our grandchildrens reality.
Did NewO'leans move after the floods? nope
Did SanFransisco move after their 7.4 quake? nope
How many cities devistated bt disasters move? not many.
Why move? We are part of nature, we adapt better than any other life form on the planet, but we forget that we are part of the planet, not seperate from it.
Christchurch will rebuild because we can adapt, learn and go on.
Many will never stop calling it home, because it is home, many will leave, ...but as mentioned, to where??? NZ is an earth quake zone peroid.
There is a lot of reactionary coments happening at the moment, ask this question again in three months time, and you might get the bums rush for being a stirrer.
Christchurch is my Family home, Christchurch will be rebuilt and I will still be here to see it grow, better, greener, safer than it ever was.
The Garden City
Lots of room for parks and gardens now in the CBD , and oppotunity to shine!

+1 to that....London is built on hollow ground and at risk from the North Sea at all times, been flattened by man and is still one of the greatest cities on the planet...they dont seem to want to ditch the place...the Low Countries of Europe which have been at risk of terrible flooding and are the locations of a lot more great cities dont seem to have left for higher ground over the centuries...the allies fucked Bremen with bombs and fire...they lost the lot...great city there now....Tokyo, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, San Francisco, Manilla.... seem to all have kept their inhabitants...were they silly...had nowhere to go or was it just HOME...yip, there will be bigger changes than we can yet imagine...........and its where Lancaster Park sits...

[Brett]

The fact is that anywhere in the country could be affected by either earthquakes, volcanoes, or both.
Where do you suggest everybody should go?
Aussie could be a choice if you feel like running from bush fires I guess.
I'm staying put, I'm wasn't here for the bricks and mortar anyway.

Absolutely true.

FYI...I am asking this question purely based on feedback I have had from people down there, not necessarily my opinion....

[Brett]

If adopted your logic Brett nobody would live in a city with a known fault line or an active volcano.

As an engineer I'm looking forward to the challenge of making Christchurch the greatest garden city in the world.

I don't believe you understand just how strong the Feb earthquake was. The city was subjected to an acceleration of 1.8g, when the Richter scale is corrected for depth it had an adjusted value of 9.2. In any other country apart from Japan there would not have been 3 buildings left standing and the casualty's would have been 1000% higher.

IMHO Christchurch has had a major earthquake and survived. Weather the citizens fight or flight is largely up to how they cope in the weeks and months after the incident.

As above, not necessarily saying that those statements were my own feelings, asking the question only...

I absolutely agree, risk occurs everywhere. There is no escaping natural disaster in some form or other be it violent and sudden such as an EQ, flash flooding etc or slow and painful like drought.

I do have an understanding of the strength of the quake, I have had a bit to do with building design and have had some interesting conversations with some of our leading Eq engineers at different times.

Japan are definitely a leader in seismic engineering in buildings but there are other countries too such as Iceland who have excelled in this area. Ensuring that the buildings are built to meet the engineered design of course is the other half of the coin...can design a brick shit house, but if it is built incorrectly then it is all an illusion.

Not at all arguing about the beauty of Chch...have spent a fair bit of time down there and love it a lot. Good to hear that many of the folk on here have no intention of leaving and this is what I hope will remain the case. Have to ask the question though, is the demographic on here a bit more resilient to hardship given that certain people types are drawn to motorcycling?

[Brett]

My Mothers family came here on the first four ships.
My Fathers family came here as indentured workers from Poland when Napoleon went to war. They dug by hand the ditched to drain the swamps.
The place was a swamp, coverd with brambles, no running water, no roads, no buildings. Yet they stayed and made it work.
They lived in tents, dug out latrines, built mud houses, harvested whaterver they could grow for food, they made it work, they built our cities foundation of people.
They had a vision the to build a town for their children and their grandchildren that was better than the towns they had left behind in england and europe.
Towns full of filth, disease, polution, coruption and war.
Their vision of the future is our reality, let our vision of the future be our grandchildrens reality.
Did NewO'leans move after the floods? nope
Did SanFransisco move after their 7.4 quake? nope
How many cities devistated bt disasters move? not many.
Why move? We are part of nature, we adapt better than any other life form on the planet, but we forget that we are part of the planet, not seperate from it.
Christchurch will rebuild because we can adapt, learn and go on.
Many will never stop calling it home, because it is home, many will leave, ...but as mentioned, to where??? NZ is an earth quake zone peroid.
There is a lot of reactionary coments happening at the moment, ask this question again in three months time, and you might get the bums rush for being a stirrer.
Christchurch is my Family home, Christchurch will be rebuilt and I will still be here to see it grow, better, greener, safer than it ever was.
The Garden City
Lots of room for parks and gardens now in the CBD , and oppotunity to shine!

Well said this man.

[AllanB]

I went for a ride to Akaroa this morning.

Life is good again.

[Subike]

Not at all arguing about the beauty of Chch...have spent a fair bit of time down there and love it a lot. Good to hear that many of the folk on here have no intention of leaving and this is what I hope will remain the case. Have to ask the question though, is the demographic on here a bit more resilient to hardship given that certain people types are drawn to motorcycling?

The resilience is in the whole population of NewZealand not just motor cyclists.
You only have to think of the fact that 4.5 million people can produce some of the best sports people of the world, beating the best te world can produce.
Thus it stands to reason that the strength of our sports men/women is in the rest of the population.
As for Canturbury residents? Ever eard of the Crusaders mate??
The demographic you speak of is in all of us Kiwi girls and guys

[Oakie]

I'm staying. Our house is more or less OK and our nerve is holding. I'm looking forward to seeing what this city will be like in 10 years.

If however the right job came up in the right location out of Christchurch I admit that at present I am more likely to consider a move than I was a prior to 22 Feb. So yeah, more likely to move for a better job I guess but still happy enough here.

[fuknKIWI]

Well it looks like I've got to come back & move my Mum out of her house & bring her over here, it's not what we choose to do but what we feel we must do. She's parked up in Timaru & feeling yesterdays biggish one was the one that convinced her that the advice she's been rejecting up until now is good advice. The plan is for her to come over for a couple of months then to return home but it's hard to plan when the situation keeps evolving day by day or even hour by hour. Poor old girl 88 y/o & being forced out of the home she wanted to stay in. Her connections go deep her second hubby's family are descendants of the Pre-Adamites.
Red'n'Black for ever...