Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Deja vu all over again

Today has been a day filled with low-flying aircraft, police sirens and plenty of shakes. This morning I headed off towards C4HQ2 to pick up some coffee beans, travelling up the newly-lumpy surface of Fitzgerald Ave and down Tuam Street which has again been hit by liquifaction. Driving down Tuam is like being on a mogul slope at times except the bumps are sand volcanoes, pouring out grey-brown sludge.

It is evident that the inner city has taken another big hit from these latest quakes... in fact, the pattern is repeated across the city. Some buildings that were already damaged have now collapsed, in some cases injuring people who were trying to save significant architectural elements like stained-glass windows.
Most places that had liquifaction in February have got it again, and a few new places as well. NZ Herald has some quake pics here, while The Press has some impressive aerial shots here.



One local kid captured a little more than he was planning with this video!

Out & about filming reaction to the earlier quake, this crew also got more than they planned.

It turns out that the two big ones yesterday were bigger than first thought. After all the data has been analysed by the scientists, the two biggest aftershocks have now been revised to 5.7 & 6.3 and are being attributed to a new faultline underneath the Port Hills.

So here we are then, it's Groundhog Day - the day after some massive shakes in C-city and once again, many of our local shops, businesses and educational institutions are closed. Our boy's school is closed til Friday and our local supermarket is closed again. Polytech campus is closed to students til Monday & we're having an off-site meeting tomorrow to try and plan how we will accommodate this latest hiccup in the academic year.

Hubby and I ended up driving over to Riccarton Mall this afternoon in search of food and groceries - about a quarter of the shops were closed and the carpark & mall were spookily quiet. I wish the ground were as quiet... it's still shaking far too often for our liking - more than 50 times in the last 24 hours. Not impressed. Not impressed at all. I'm jumpy and stressed and sick of having to re-plan my personal and working life every 2-3 months.

I think me & Thelma here need to go on a road trip... but instead of ghosts or single men, we be hunting fault lines...

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