Completely forgetting here in Northland that in Christchurch now some almost two months after the major earthquake struck and destroyed many heritage buildings along with much of the city’s infrastructure such as sewerage, etc, I phoned a friend wanting to complain. It almost cost me the friendship since that happened to be the day after a 5.1 aftershock struck.
Here, my friend explains succinctly the reality of the continuing damage and stress. It opened my eyes and perhaps will open yours.
“We are all at the end of very frayed nerves down here. I wish they didn’t dismiss them as aftershocks as to us experiencing them it seems to just mean more earthquakes. The damage keeps on getting worse but I did sucessfully speak to the EQC again….the thing is they have to deal with about 100,000 claims at the moment so my damage is minor by comparison but you have to wonder how much more our buildings can take. Yesterday’s was another one which shattered more.
I was walking up to the corner shop for a bottle of milk when it hit. You should have seen the telegraph poles shake. The path lurched under my feet as if I was at sea. It is all quite frightening and the thing is that although we know to expect more, we dont know when, and when they hit we don’t know how long or how bad the shock will be.
We are all shit scared and sick of pretending that we aren’t. The best thing is when for some reason you manage to miss a quake that everyone else is commenting on…sometimes you can sleep through little ones especially if you have taken a sleeping pill !
What people elsewhere don’t understand is that it isn’t a question of staying calm and not panicking. We are all doing just that. The shot of adrenaline released into the bloodstream is not under each individuals’ control and most of us have had a dose of adrenalin every day for more than six weeks administered by the bigger aftershocks, and we have had more than 2000 quakes since sept 4. People with bad heart disease are dying because of the adrenaline.
Christchurch is a very sad sight. You can’t go anywhere without being shocked by the destruction because so many of the little shopping centres were the old brick and verandah type which are either fallen or falling. The whole thing really is indescribable. There are many here who have no hope of even a sewerage system for years because the mains are broken. Portaloos in the streets are not a good way to live, my sister’s whole unit is gradually twisting away from her garage. My concrete foundation is now cracked and all in all it continues to warp our reality.
It is amazing this machine is even functioning. Yesterday’s biggest aftershock was enough to cut electricity and my friend didn’t get water again until late last night.
So …….that’s enough explanation. The situation down here is variable, to say the least. We can only keep on keeping on.
Theresa Sjoquist
Bioforce
Daily Organics
Theresa Sjoquist
