Reflections on an Earthquake

The earthquake in nearby Christchurch made the international news, and a lot of our friends and family must have been a bit worried at first. Most of my blog followers have experienced earthquakes, and I know my musings are not unique.

vancouverite.com

 Fayne and I were both awaken about 4:30 am Saturday Sept 4th first by a sound-a low, deep rumble. Our house being no more than 0.5 km from the shore, the first thought was there was a strong wind coming in over the sea, but as it slowly grew in intensity, we quickly recognized it as a temblor. It lasted a long time, well over a minute. The room rather gently rolled, then gradually abated. Nothing in our sparsely furnished 100 year-old home fell or was damaged. We were alert, but not overtly frightened, ans felt no grave danger. There was a second strong after-shock about 20 minutes later, the first of many over the next few days (one just occurred as I am typing this). We were awake and alert. I got up to see if there was any news on NZ TV. There was none. We went back to bed. Being right across the street from the hospital, I could hear no sirens or traffic, and assumed there was no significant local destruction or injuries (only a few church steeples were damaged in Timaru).

When you have lived in earthquake country, there a lot of questions that cascade through your mind, such as:

1) Where was the epicenter? A small quake under your house is felt much more than a large one far away. In this case, the center was 20 miles west of Christchurch, about 120 miles from here, in Darfield, a small town on the TranzAlpine train route.

2) Was anyone hurt? You know you may just been on the border of a tremendous tragedy, or not. Miraculously, no one died in the quake. If it had occurred in daytime, almost certainly some would have.

3) Would there be bridges down, dams broken, fires, or a tsunami? There was some significant damage to old brick buildings, some were destroyed, and a few fires due to downed power lines, gas leaks, and broken water mains, but the emergency response was great. The Christchuch Hospital was back onto full power within a few hours. There were a few small rural bridges down, cracks in roads, but no tsunami warnings.

dailymail.co.uk

4) Are friends and loved ones safe?  Two families from there in particular have been most kind to us, as detailed in previous blogs. Michelle Dhanak and family and home were fine, and worried mostly about the water and sewage issues. David Cohen (Paula's brother) and family were safe, but unfortunately suffered more damage to their home and flooding and debris in the yard and neighborhood. Our thoughts are with them.

I believe what is so fundamentally upsetting about earthquakes is that throughout life, our ultimate point of reference is the solid ground beneath our feet. Numerous figures of speech reflect this: rock solid, mother earth, being grounded, have your feet on the ground, etc. With other natural dangers, be it wind, rain, flood, snow, or lightning, we can seek refuge on or in the ground. If you can't trust the earth, where can you be safe?

It is also not too comforting to listen to the experts. We always hear "but this wasn't the big one we are expecting". Also, it seems often the fault line is one not previously know. I think things are always a lot clearer in retrospect, analyzed after the quake. (Not too helpful). However, I don't think many people regret the seismic retrofitting done here or in the states. I am sure there would have been much more destruction of the historic stone buildings without it.

We are left thankful that most of these events are far less tragic than they could be, and aware that there are so many things in life over which we have no control. We can always build new buildings, as Helen, one of the secretaries here, reminded me. And we can take heart in they way most people respond and rise to a crisis and pull together.

It is unclear at this point how this will effect my sister Angela's plan to attend a conference in Christchurch next week. We shall see.

Also, we wish a very happy birthday to my mother Billie Hope, born on September 6th, 19**. We love you.