Christchurch, anyone?

this gets awfuller and awfuller. it is very likely my nephew's friend has died. my friend has 3 friends trapped in the building where authorities have said there is no hope of survivors. people are living in terrible conditions and the aftershocks keep happening and happening. everyone i have been in touch with is horribly sad and afraid. my beautiful old city is wrecked. i hate that my sister is there. matt mceachen sounds like a sweetheart. it's heartbreaking.

my beautiful old city is wrecked.

Five words rarely sounded so heartbreaking. Best to everyone there you know and love, estela.

yes

oh estela. Enormous hugs.

thank you ned. you went there, didn't you? so you know how lovely it was. thank you aa.

here is a list of recent aftershocks, updated constantly, the page shows the last 30 only:

http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/recent_quakes.html

thank you darragh.

yeah echoing what everyones said. i went to university in dunedin so i know this area p well + its just crazy + terrible to imagine this

I've been there twice and I know loads of people there. Fortunately they're all directly unaffected, but of course there are infrastructure issues, and none of them are talking about people they know who have died or suffered (we haven't asked, of course).

(and yes it's an undeniably gorgeous and characterful place)

thank you ned. you went there, didn't you?

I had hoped to, but plans fell through during my 2002 visit, ah well. I know friends who have been, though, and I remember flying over it during my trip. The setting seemed quite spectacular.

yes, it's really beautiful.

my boss had a house in Christchurch which was destroyed. I spoke to him last night he's flying over in the next couple of days to sort shit out, he was unsurprisingly pretty emotional :( Some of his family still lived there but luckily no one was home when it happened

So harrowing every time I click on this thread, I got a heavy heavy heart for all of you affected by this.

Just after the quake:

http://towleroad.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c730253ef014e864375ad970d-pi

two incredible ppl i know are in chch to help out the mother of one them - they posted to facebook today that they have a car and supplies and if anybody wants them to check up on someone they can't find, they're happy to do it on their behalf.

A lot of these stories really are just the saddest:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-new-zealand-quake-20110224,0,297881.story

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/4697308/Christchurch-quake-226-missing-98-dead

- more than 100 people have died in one building alone, the TV building.

A bunch of the people missing in the CTV building are my good friend's students, who were there on the second or third day of a short study abroad trip to learn English. It's just a devastating loss for his school (which also happens to be my wife's alma mater) and the city he lives in. Not to distract from the tremendous loss to the community of Christchurch, but it just seems extra cruel and unfair that those kids had to be there at that exact time.

Yeah I noticed that and was horrified, i mean dying unexpectedly overseas away from yr loved ones is incomprehensibly awful. Makes me afraid of going anywhere.

And now more quakes, no lives lost but damage and injuries again. Jeez.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/5159391/Red-zone-Like-a-war-zone

some photos of how terrible this is.

my sister is there, i really wish she wasn't.

: (

yes. thank you.

<3

aw estela, hugs :((

i am talking to her on the phone right now and we are laughing out loudly in spite of everything.

Life and our security in it is such a fragile thing, really. I cant imagine how she and everyone there must feel right now, but my heart breaks.

thank you people for your kind thoughts.

i don't know how up to date the counter was but i just read they've had 7469 earthquakes/aftershocks since sept 4.

please send good thoughts that her house will be written off and she'll get enough insurance to cover her mortgage so she can leave, that is our hope.

dearestela,

this is wrenching. i am just sick at the thought of what it must be like to be there, and at the images of such a beautiful city having been demolished. i have such lovely memories of walking around right there in those places, on those streets, now shattered. what it must feel like for you and yours, i cannot fathom.

i hope she can leave very soon. be safe, sister.

love you,
lxy

hope my cousin is ok. Better check facebook!

A couple of weeks ago I met someone at work who left chch after the recent big one. It was so sad seeing her explain that they had to leave and can't go back.

A few of my old friends are still there. One couple's already planning to come back to Melbourne and another's organising a move to Invercargill.

i really hope your sister gets out, estela!

my best friend is trying to figure out what her and her bf are gonna do - he works at the university and she's still in school. they were actually planning on buying a house there until the 2nd quake in feb.

ah - cousin ok! but rattled

Didn't know that much of the Christchurch city center was still off limits. Photos here: http://www.abandonedjourney.com/abandoned-city

i'm here for the first time since the earthquakes and more of the central city has been opened up recently, though parts are still off limits, and you can be in a street you knew well and have no idea of where you are because the landmarks have gone and the skylines are altered and there are so few people around in the city and there are so many broken buildings and empty lots and detours and cordons and fences. you have a memory map of the city that you try to lay over the new landscape but it seems confusing and wrong, and you feel impatient as if it's an unpleasant dream that's going on a bit too long, and wherever you go there's more and more and more damage and you get sick of hearing yourself cry out because you understand your reactions and feelings have no weight. yesterday i was very close to my old home and didn't realise until i recognised the little bridge we were driving over.
however life continues and people are reimagining and recreating and rebuilding things so there is a lot to be hopeful about once you get through the sorrow of the place you loved being altered forever. the last time i was here, on the final evening, i stood on a balcony with my dying cousin and we were admiring the view and i thought, it must be so strange and awful for him to look at all this and know he will be gone soon but it will all continue, never realising i wouldn't be seeing it again either.

Damn, estela.

But if there is hope as you say, then let it flourish.

<3 estela, i hope your sister is managing ok

<3 thank you, she is fine and her house has been repaired (many haven't). it is a solid little wooden house built in the 40s and her land held up especially well for the area she lives in, which took quite a hit. things could have been a lot worse.

thanks for sharing that, very moving account

aw geez estela

<3 etc

thanks chaps<3

<3

nice piece in The Wire this month about the musical community in Christchurch (inc Bruce Russell) and their response to the earthquakes - makes gd companion reading to estela's post, cos again there is hope, resilience, determination

kia kaha, estela

arohanui, lxy

thoughts

Yeah, same.

Seems like everyone I know (in Wellington, natch) is just fine. Had a decent scare this morning when I heard about it.

dammit

warning downgraded for much of the country, two dead so far:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/new-zealand-tsunami-feared-live-9251551

Biggest quake I've ever felt in Wellington - long, rolling quake rather than the more usual short sharp shocks. Our ex-Christchurch flatmate was in tears, and since we're on higher ground we had some friends of our French flatmate that were on the eight floor of a hostel on reclaimed land downtown come and stay the night. Glad the tsunami warning's passed.