My town has been destroyed - gaming cancelled

[Rabbitbait]

Thanks DP. Things are going well personally, although I'm busy beyond belief. We've managed to source an office, so one month after the quake I actually have an office. A real office. We were based in a sports club bar for the last two weeks, writing everything on paper while sitting on bar stools. Traffic is awful now though. With the east side of town effectively destroyed, all the businesses that can move have moved to the west side of town. Complete gridlock every morning. I've gone from taking 20 minutes to taking 80 minutes to get to work. Two major developments in the last week.


A list has just come out of 128 major businesses in the Central City that will need to be destroyed. Many many many heritage buildings or landmarks will be gone.

The council have put out the statement that there is a 50/50 chance that the sewerage system is about to collapse completely. About 75% of the city are currently able to flush, but soon it may be nobody. The beaches and rivers are already unsafe due to the amount of sewerage making its way into the waterways from broken pipes. Even if it doesn't the coucil are saying it will be at least one year for the people who don't have sewerage to have it restored.

While it's interesting being in the middle of a disaster zone (the state of National Emergency has not been lifted yet), its tiring. Nothing is simple anymore.

That said, I'm alive, my family is alive and I only know one of the people who died. My house is livable and I have power, water and sewerage. So stop wingeing rabbitbait and get on with it.

 

[DumbPaladin]

While it's interesting being in the middle of a disaster zone (the state of National Emergency has not been lifted yet), its tiring. Nothing is simple anymore.

That said, I'm alive, my family is alive and I only know one of the people who died. My house is livable and I have power, water and sewerage. So stop wingeing rabbitbait and get on with it.

Hey, you have every right to 'winge' WHILE you actually do some of the hard work of helping your city rebuild. I think that's fair.

It sounds like the recovery's barely starting. I hope you're still getting some help from somewhere -- the country government, charities, foreign aid ...

Glad your family's all OK, too.

--G

 

[Scott DeWar]

It sounds like the recovery's barely starting.

........ Glad your family's all OK, too.

--G

I have seen the videos but out by the city government (they were a bit buggy, but my computer finally figured out the problem). I remember seeing the piles of refuse from fallen buildings pushed to the side of the streets. Recovery or not, those images will be in my mind forever. I remember seeing what i am guessing are the landmarks, magnificent architecture. I saw a simple building with an elegant tile mosaic. It will probably be destroyed.

But in all that, Life continues.

 

[Rabbitbait]

Yep, it will be a long slow recovery. However that's better than a short, badly thought through recovery. The city basically needs to be completely rebuilt which gives an amazing opportunity to do it better than ever. Not many cities in Western countries get planned and then built anymore. Also a lot of recovery stuff won't happen until the earthquakes stop. Only 4 quakes today.

It's six weeks since the second big earthquake now and a lot of people who have been running on adrenaline are now starting to collapse. A lot of sick leave is being taken and people are losing some of their good humour. The work is long and hard and we are doing it without basic facilities.

The aftershocks keep on coming as well. That's one of the worst bits - the actual disaster event actually hasn't finished yet. The geologists say we can expect up to 3 more big (not as big) ones in the next 6 months before it starts to quieten down. We don't feel safe yet.

 

[Rabbitbait]

I keep remembering Sim City. I live in Sim City now.

 

[Scott DeWar]

I will be glad tosee the tile of this changed to : "MY city is rebuilt!"

 

[Rabbitbait]

It'll be a while. The council announced it hopes to open one street of the city mall by October. They are calling it a 'retail beachhead'. But there is a heap of demolition and then rebuild to do first.

 

[Rabbitbait]

And another biggish one. At 5.3 it doesn't sound that big, but it's caused rockfalls, power cuts, more building collapses, phone outages, lots of liquification (where silt bubbles out of the ground, including into peoples houses) and some people are trapped and need rescuing.

I was outside when this hit, manning a stall for a community briefing at a local park. It's been raining all day, but you have to have these outside as lots of people are afraid of being inside big buildings. Brr - winter is here.

I could see the ground move - kinda like a cross between a bouncing trampoline and a sloshing bath. It almost knocked me off my feet - I could see the cars in the carpark nearby bouncing around as well.

It's now 7 months since the 'big one' back on Sept 4th last year, but the aftershocks are still showing no sign of going away.

We are living in interesting times.

 

[Scott DeWar]

You said this was caused by an undersea volcano, so i really did not expect it to quit happening over there.Sorry.

 

[Rabbitbait]

I'd like to mention something - it's commonly thought that when the hits the fan and the trappings of civilization such as power, sewerage, phones, shops stop being available that anarchy will ensue. Totally false - people become more civilized than before. People get to know their neighbours, share their food with strangers, help each other repair and rebuild. Living through a disaster has made me proud to be human as I've realised that our default position is to share.