Earthquake brain

Typical, work starts rolling in again after a couple of quiet weeks and I have earthquake-brain. So I'm just going to dump some thoughts out here.

So, are we accepting the new reality yet? In September we felt we'd dodged a bullet, in February we realised that things might not be so simple but I think people still clung to the assumption that there would be no more major events. Queens Birthday was stressful but written off as an aftershock - yesterday's one-two combo should make it quite clear that major events are still a very real possibility, even if there is increasingly little physical damage which -can- be done to some areas.

On Public Address Russell wrote

Watching earthquake scientist guy Mark Quigley on Campbell Live, the look of defeat in his face as he was interviewed outside his house in Avonside, I felt sad. The poor bastard so wanted to say it would get better now, and he just couldn’t say that.

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Here are some other quotes bouncing around in my head from that thread and the follow-up started specifically for yesterday's quakes.

Ben Wilson

It’s almost like the city is battling with a potentially life threatening illness, with slow progress of therapy and sudden disastrous reversals, as well as the underlying and constant malaise.

Hebe

A call from a psych trauma specialist friend in the US this morning (just who we needed to hear from). He says that this is an unprecented natural disaster in that three have happened in a short time along with the 6800 or so aftershocks. The first we we all unprepared for; the second we were in training and could dust ourselves off and do it all again.

This time he correctly surmised (in my case and from talking to others here) that many people will be feeling powerless and that picking up the pieces is futile and more will leave. It’s apparently a recognised psychological stage called Repetitive Crisis something (I can’t remember the last word but you get what I mean).

Emma

Also... the students? Are in the middle of exams. They'll not be digging us out in a hurry this time round. And dear gods, how TIRED they must be. This is the time when we need outside help coming in.

Russell

As I wrote at the time, it became clear to me that what happens on the “good” side of the fence is as important – or in some ways more important – than what happens in the red zone itself. If people clear out, the area dies. It’s not hard to extrapolate that to the city itself.

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Hebe again

Life will never be the new normal. It is irretrievably different, on the physical, mental, and emotional planes. Bugger rebuilding, let's talk about building a city anew; probably in the same place but in a head-space sense.

I don't think the worst damage is in the Central City any more (if it ever was). I think that rebuild, inasmuch as it has to go ahead, is too narrow in it's focus both geographically and emotively. Christchurch doesn't just need *rebuilt* now, it needs *re-invented*.

So I propose a new title taking our current negative and giving it a positive spin - not "The Garden City", but "The City that Moves".

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It might seem easy to pontificate from my relatively undamaged home, not having lost any one, not at risk of losing everything I've put into a home or business, job secure. I just ... don't know what else to do. My skillsets are not the ones needed here. Getting "out there" would just be getting in the way.

I do fear that a new quake from an unexpected direction might prove the "West" side not as stable as we think it is. The possibility of losing my home does lurk at the back of my mind and I'm really not sure how I'd cope.

And you folk who have someone/s specifically that you can worry about the safety of, can re-unite with and comfort and be comforted by - Ghod I envied you that as I just watched the stream of people check in online.