Things have calmed down (and internet access has been restored) so I feel like I should put up my thoughts. As the event has receded, it’s become clear there’s no reason to harp on it, so it’ll be just one post about it, I think.
I can’t recall much of the actual quake. Once the panic was over, we went back to bed. In retrospect this seems like a foolish decision but it made sense at the time — there was no obvioud building damage and very little destruction inside the house. I don’t think we would have crawled back into bed if the chimney had fallen through the roof or the TV was on the floor.
The day dawned normally. We had power to make tea, make some scones and took stock. Everything looked quiet out our front window, despite the ongoing radio coverage of destruction and panic. The neighbors’ houses were still there. The streets were unblemished. No pillars of fire in the distance. We even had TV, which showed us what was going on around the city.
By midmorning we went out for a bit of rubbernecking and to think about things. In short we were all lucky. Some of us suffered just a little, some suffered a little more (no power) or a lot (broken sewers), some had their houses cracked down the middle. But no mass destruction, no collapsed high-rises, landslides, fires, no water-borne epidemic (we hope). No (direct) fatalities, few lingering problems (where is clean water? where is our next meal coming from?) and the overall fabric of society held up. Amazing. Honestly, the under-insulation of NZ housing is a far more dangerous social tragedy.
Aftershocks have continued, and are forecast to continue for a few more weeks (!). At first I actually thought they were kind of, dare I say it, cool. Just the feeling of having the whole world move around you like a ship on the ocean. After a couple of nights of 5.x aftershocks, though, I’m ready for it to end. You’re just never quite sure which one’s going to get stronger rather than fade away.
So the current situation: my Uni is closed for the week, along with day care while they clean up. Anna is off through Thursday. We’re still boiling water, but there’s plenty of it coming out of the taps. No problems with electricity. We’re letting the yellow mellow. The house checks out. There are still some empty shelves at the grocery — bottled water, hand sterilizer, but milk and butter are in abundance. Downtown is closed, as are the usual distractions, but we’ll cope.
Here are a few photos we took during our rubbernecking trip on Saturday morning:
Obviously there was a lot of chance involved, but we also benefited from geology, good weather, building codes, public health systems, reasonable telecommunication infrastructure, responsive and caring government, existing robust water and sewerage systems, strong neighborhood communities, modern megamarkets with good distribution infrastructure, good roads, etc etc etc. So, if you were concerned at all for us, if even for a moment, channel that concern here, here or if you really must, here.
