Books for Christchurch Earthquake Kids

Within the past 5 months, Christchurch, New Zealand has experienced two major earthquakes. The second of these has destroyed the central city of Christchurch.

On September 4, 2010, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake occured. On February 22, 2011 a magnitude 6.3 earthquake occured, at a depth of only 5km and only 9km from our city centre. This second earthquake has been the one to decimate the already quake weakened city.

Blog post on February 22, 2011 earthquake
Blog post on September 4, 2010 earthquake

To help children and families in Christchurch, I have been working with Zoe Toft at Playing By The Book to get books sent from publishers and writers to me, for distribution to the Children in Christchurch.

Books are such an important part of a child's life, helping them learn to read and gain insight into the world around them. In a disaster situation, books provide security, comfort and release from the world they are experiencing.

Our first initiative is to get books to the children who are in Welfare centres. These children and their families are displaced from their homes and have no other place to live. Often they are poorer families and some of them have lost their entire home contents.

When these families are re-homed, the books at the centre will be sent home with them to start them anew and provide an important link in their memories of this disaster.

I am receiving books, for anyone who wishes to send them, please contact me.

email: bookdonations at charon.co.nz
twitter: heabe

Once we have this underway, our second initiative is to look at getting books into schools for distribution to the children of Christchurch. I will be looking at working with the Christchurch City Libraries to achieve this.

Earthquake #2, twice the pain!

On February 22nd, 2011 Christchurch, New Zealand sustained a second major earthquake. This earthquake hit at 12:51pm in the middle of lunch time. Crowds of people were around the central city shopping areas, vehicles were transporting people in buses and cars. This time we have experienced catastrophy.

The effect of the 7.1 Magnitude earthquake on September 4, 2010, was still raw in our minds. Cantabrians were picking themselves up and trying to return to normal as much as possible. 90% of Businesses were operating again, but the signs of the earthquake damage were still clear to see. We were all counting ourselves incredibly lucky that no-one had been killed in the September earthquake, and remarking on how the high building codes had prevented any major destruction to buildings....BUT, the 7.1 earthquake was 11km deep and centred 40km west of the city centre.

Since that earthquake we had experienced very large aftershocks, with over 4000 in 5 months, of varying sizes. What occured on February 22nd was for a fault to trigger, located only 9km from the city centre at a depth of 5km!! Located in the seaside town of Lyttleton.

Unfortunately because this aftershock was generated during a busy lunch time, we have incurred fatalities this time. I believe this more than anything has contributed to the fear people have regarding their experience. The CBD transformed from a typical urban shopping place into a what resembled a war zone. People lying under rubble, others walking with blood pooring down their head, people screaming. This is not what we expect to encounter in our daily lives, we are not prepared at all, to deal with this type of experience.

The earthquake this time has induced a number related disasters:

The CBD has been devastated. 1/3 of all the buildings will need to be demolished, 2/3rds of our CBD will need to be rebuilt. We have lost our only Local Television station, CTV. It will be months before the CBD will be open again. Christchurch is no longer a tourist destination.

The levels of liquifaction (water raised above the soil due to the shaking) are much worse than last time. 100,000-150,000 tonnes of sand will need to be removed from roads, driveways and lawns.

Watermains have burst and sewerage pipes have burst, casting toxic, bacteria ridden water over and through residential housing. It is estimated that it will take over a year to repair, the repair costing $100 million or more, due to the magnitude and widespread nature of the damage.

The cliffs around Sumner and Redcliffs have collapsed, covering houses and blocking roads. Houses built on the side of the hills have destablised so much that entire streets are now evacuated for fear of the hill collapsing. Residents in these suburbs are isolated from Christchurch.

Power has been out for most of Christchurch and now has been restored to about 80% of Christchurch. Water is still out in 50% of Christchurch houses and this is causing huge problems for Christchurch residents. Water tankers have been brought in, Army are taking sea water and converting it to fresh, farmers are bringing their farm tanks in.

Never have we realised our reliance on the basic necessities of life. Power, water, sewerage, gas: these things you just take for granted. Now we are overjoyed for a hot shower!

We are losing around 10,000 Christchurch residents per day, although this will fall over coming days. The streets are noticably quieter. Our economy is at a stand still. Our business district is being transferred out of town. We are quietly aware that our thriving city is now struggling to breathe.

But we never give up. In the streets each day go the remaining residents, student army and an array of volunteer organisations, to clear the debri, provide support to the elderly, shift residents from homes, welcome residents into shared homes, share showers, food, water and other supplies. Well stocked welfare centres have been setup for families who are homeless and destitute. People have shown their generosity and kindness toward the Christchurch people in their time of greatest need throughout New Zealand, and all across the globe!

"We will rebuild" comes the cry, "we just don't give up"!

My Photos
BBC Video
NZ Herald Videos
NZ Herald Photos
Stuff Coverage

New Year.....New Beginning

Well my blog has been hopelessly neglected over the past few months. I have been trying to sort out how to include all the things I wanted to post, but havent found a way to easily do this....so the decision has been made and I am now going to start-again from now.