The Christchurch City earthquakes in February and June were unbelievably tragic for the city and for many individuals. Lives and property were lost and no-one who was in the city for either earthquake escaped the sheer terror of having the world shaking underneath, beside and around them.
We have been fortunate. Yet, like many in Christchurch we felt relief towards the end of 2011 as it appeared that the aftershocks were in permanent decline.
With big hits on 23rd December and more on 1st January 2012 our complacency was shattered. Scientists are now saying that Christchurch will be shaky (albeit at overall declining rates) for the next 30 years to come.
From being firmly decided, before 23rd December, that our future was a Christchurch future latest events and accompanying analysis have made it clear that we cannot just pretend 2011 was an aberration and pick up where 2010 left off. This doesn’t necessarily mean that we will move out of Christchurch but does mean that we have to get used to living with the new normal – a normal where a 5-6 magnitude shake is a possibility and jarring and unpredictable 4-5s happen every day or so.
So, the new normal means taking the kind of precautions that, despite the well-intentioned urgings of civil defence types, we’d never bothered with before. The earthquake protection of our possessions and ourselves that started after June has started again. My partner has been doing simple things like making sure that open shelves have a barrier on them to prevent things flying off, attaching (and I mean really attaching) bookshelves, the television and anything vaguely moveable to walls, making sure there is nothing high and heavy in the childrens’ rooms and wrapping bungy cords around cupboards to make sure they don’t fly open.
We’ve also made some simple ‘living’ changes. It is no longer acceptable for any vehicle to have less than half a tank of petrol. We always park one car on the road now just in case our driveway becomes impassable. We have an emergency kit of spare clothes, personal effects etc. in the garage ready to be loaded into the truck in case we have to flee. Three weeks without flushing toilets, safe water or power is no fun.
The bigger question “to stay or not to stay” is there just below the surface for both of us. We won’t stay because we’re gritty, determined or committed Cantabrians. If we stay it will be because we like it. We simply can’t think of where we could get (or afford) the superb access to sea, sand and privacy that we have where we live. We are blown away by the quality of our daughter’s preschool here. We both have exercise routines based around local facilities and are looking forward to the re-opening of Les Mills, Cashel Street at the end of March (fingers crossed). We think we might even get a great new ‘New World’ supermarket around 10 minutes drive away. It is scheduled to be built during 2012.
So, while are going to be exploring other options, the bar is very high.
Fingers crossed for a safe and settled 2012 for all in Christchurch.