The fragility of terra firma came to the fore when Christchurch was struck by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake on Saturday 4 September.
The first 40-second tremor ripped a new fault line on the Canterbury Plains, now named the Greendale to Rolleston fault scarp. Road surfaces burst open; bricks tumbled from walls, roofs and facades; buildings tilted; railways lines curved into waves from the power of the shock.
The Christchurch inner city and the nearby small town of Kaiapoi took the brunt of the initial tremor and the 19 pre-dawn aftershocks. Ripped earth, tumbled brick walls, caved in roofs, split roads and collapsing chimneys pockmarked the city. The Kaiapoi township will find it pretty difficult to return to what it was – a laid-back but thriving community of farmers and commuters seeking the idyll life.
While the media had many superlatives to describe the ‘devastated’ city, most Cantabrians took the earthquake in their stride. They came together briskly, and with some authority, to get their city functioning as normally as possible as soon as possible.
Cantabrians, by nature, are very resilient. It comes with the terrain – the isolation, the attitude of self-reliance and the harshness of the climate makes for a people of sterner stuff than normal.
Christchurch city and its environs had already experienced three moderate earthquakes in the last 40 years and it was pretty prepared for an earthquake, or any other disaster, through continued practice of disaster management over the years. Miraculously the ‘devastating’ earthquake did not claim a single life, its timing seeing most of its residents tucked in bed.
The sense of calm that prevailed over the city, even during the period of aftershocks that numbered 300 plus over the week, was the result of both the high level of preparedness from the authorities and the innate nature of Cantabrians. That sense of calm was injected into the residents through quick, effective and open communications. What residents fear most is not knowing what is happening and Christchurch was clear in its message of what was happening and what was required of the residents.
Police moved in swiftly to stem the initial spate of looting on the first day and although there were continued incidents of robbery and looting throughout the week, mostly by the opportunists, they were very rare.
It took a little over a week to set Christchurch on its feet, thanks to Civil Defence, the Christchurch City Council and partner agencies, and the NZ Government leaping into action from this very strong platform of preparedness.
Yes, the city has several crumpled buildings and cracked and fissured roads scattered all over. But the water is back on everywhere except for a very few places and is drinkable straight out of the tap. The power was back on within the day of the earthquake in all but the most affected placed. It was back on in almost the entire city within the week.
Portaloos were deployed to the few places where the sewage system had packed up. Granted, that it was much inconvenience for many people but the service was there.
And there is a $4 billion cost tag on the damages. But Business Canterbury is raring to go, especially with the summer around the corner. The weather has been marvellous, those business that can open are open, and the local business agencies are already marketing the city as a good place to visit. With government funding and support, most businesses will hit their stride sooner rather than later.
People are already asking what Christchurch and Canterbury can learn from this earthquake, and are putting in place protocols and procedures to be better prepared for the future (lest the lessons learnt be forgotten too quickly).
The most surprising element of the earthquake was the sense of belonging and the sense of responsibility that the residents displayed.
In the first hours of dawn on the day of the earthquake much of Christchurch was calm. The streets were safe and calm throughout. People were enquiring of their neighbours, or helping out or just standing around calmly on the streets as the city rocked to aftershocks. The look was grim generally but quick smiles were also there. And, of course, a fair bit of rubber necking later once they realised much of the main danger had passed.
At one time, the Civil Defence operations were asking people to stop donating as the welfare centres around the city were surfeit with food, blankets and other materials.
Volunteers were also asked to come back when they were needed as there were just too many of them. One week on, volunteers are now being directed towards the recovery part of the emergency operations.
And offers of help and aid from more fortunate residents of Christchurch, and from people from other parts of New Zealand, continued unabated throughout the week.
Canterbury will always live with the threat of an earthquake – seismic modelling has found that earthquakes that could cause significant property damage and loss of life could recur on average in the Christchurch area every 55 years.
It is a price one has to pay for living in Canterbury but it does make for a better type of person to be living in the shadow of a giant, it can be said.