another bad sleep, but not due to aftershocks. with everything that has been going on i have forgotten to take my medication and woke with pretty wicked heartburn.
soon after that there was the largest aftershock i've felt for a while. having not felt ANY quake before, let alone the one we felt a week ago, i can't say whether these shocks are normal, but they are all i know...and compared to the actual quake, they are nothing. they last but a second or three. sure when you first feel them, or hear the rumbling, your heart drops, you momentarily freak or panic, but then by the time the brain kicks in it's still once more.
i know that many people outside of canterbury are now looking at geonet to see how big and often the aftershocks are. although this is an indicator, it isn't a true indication of what we feel.
the rumbling, albeit daunting, is a good thing. it means the energy from the earth is being released. it lessens the chance of a large aftershock.
it was another stunning day today. a replica of last saturday, blue skies, warm wind but the feeling was a little lighter than then, for the most part. not everywhere i'm sure.
not where i was, well to start. the child cancer and canteen offices are in a older house in town. half of one wall collapsed and there was a threat that the entire place would be ripped in half. initially yellow stickered, it was later 'upgraded' to essentially a red. thanks to being in the right place at the right time, i got to be there this morning.
the team were fairly somber when i arrived, rightly so. even though an office can be relocated, when it's an organisation as such where families can come to 'be' and there is so much of other people within the four walls, it's harder than most to just walk away from. i felt honoured and privileged to be able to enter the house, and help them to 'clear out'. with any luck this building may be able to be rescued, especially as the council are now adamant they want to save as many buildings as possible.
it's interesting the older i get the more interested i become in engineering - well from a total amateur level. having a father who is an engineer, albeit civil, i always detested engineering seeing it as extremely boring. but the reality is, without engineers, barely anything would exist.
we headed out to look at the local canoe club, which is next to the avon in the middle of one of the more severely damaged suburbs in town. seeing the state of many of the roads and some buildings here, i can understand why so many people outside of here think the damage is horrific. in these area's it is. it's bad. the roads undriveable in places.
the canoe club has been recently renovated, only completed three weeks before the quake. the building has held up, but moved, just a tad (look at the downpipes). the older buildings either side are both a mess, more than likely will be pulled down. good news for the canoe club, the river should be less congested than it usually is for quite some time.
across the road porrits park, the city's main hockey turf. destroyed, unless there can be a way to play hockey on an undulating surface. it will be relocated.
as we leave we come across a milo truck, yum, free milo and some other yummy nestle treats. nice move nestle!
i'm a tad tired, and i've only been out for three hours. how people of canterbury have kept going for hours on end, day after day for the past week is beyond my energy levels. but hats off too them, the city is standing proud.
No comments:
Post a Comment