Rabu, 22 Februari 2012
One year ago this week a powerful earthquake hit Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 185 people. The 6.3 magnitude quake came at 21.51 pm local time. Nationals from more than 20 countries were among the dead. Morag White shares her family’s story.
Source: http://id.she.yahoo.com/new/http://thehoopla.com.au/christchurch-year-today//
The purple glass vase I gave my mother when I was 10 years old no longer sits on the shelf in the lounge room.
The family photos that once decorated the walls now languish on the bed in the spare room and the roof of the glass house sports a large gaping hole, like the purple vase.
They all lost their battle with the aftershocks.
This is how life is in Christchurch a year on since the devastating earthquake that killed 185 people. In the past 12 months there have been thousands of aftershocks, the latest in December measuring 5.8 and 6.0 on the Richter Scale.
The result, for a visitor like myself making the periodic pilgrimage to my hometown, is bewildering. The comfort and joy of revisiting old haunts and glimpsing the familiar is no longer guaranteed, memory lane has cracked and it is littered with piles of rubble and vacant lots.
I experienced the December earthquakes from the relative safety of a grounded small aircraft.
When the first earthquake hit I thought it was the baggage handlers roughly flinging the luggage into the hold but when the second earthquake struck an hour later, just as we were about to get the all-clear to fly, I started to get concerned – the shaking felt threatening, the consequences potentially fatal.
When the tremors ceased I noticed, to my amazement, that one of the cabin crew was falling about laughing. I was quite surprised she was able to laugh it off – I thought it would be exasperating for her.
We all had to disembark and wait on the tarmac and all the flight schedules had now been thrown into disarray. However, this was just another day at the office for her, luckily she has a sense of humour.
Christchurch was once my home, but now it will never be the same.
I was lucky that I wasn't there for the two major earthquakes nor have I had to live through the ongoing aftershocks. Thankfully nobody close to me died.
However, I still feel a major loss and deep sadness as buildings that were my memory markers, the tangible links to my history have now been completely destroyed.
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