Aftermath

Today was a glorious day. The weather was balmy and warm, and everything was happy and sunshiney and just peachy-perfect... oh, as long as you could ignore the cracks in the roads and the rubble and the tarpaulined holes where chimneys had been.

For most of the past two days I've been staying at home, keeping safe and trying not to use too much water. On Sunday morning I went to the supermarket, which was busy but well stocked (not running out of milk and bread like the rumours said). I stayed at home for as long as I could but eventually I had to get out and just see for myself what was going on. Not being suicidal I haven't gone near the CBD, but here are some pictures from round and about...

Burst water pipes.

Formerly a dairy.

Condemned shops. I used to like shopping at Madame Butterfly's vintage emporium...

This is the fish n chip shop where we got our tea on Friday night.

Formerly a hairdressers.

I used to work in this building - not anymore. I still have a job, but we are relocating to temporary premises until a new location is found. (If I had been at work here when the quake hit, the outcome could have been so different...)

The Gayhurst Road bridge crossing the Avon river. You can see the tarmac has lifted up in chunks. I'm standing on Avonside Drive to take this photo - most of it is open again now, but further down the street is blocked off where a lot of cracking happened.

This church on Edgeware Road really took a hammering. See how the gates are all twisted at the front. A stained glass window has fallen out of that round hole.

This is the building behind the church. Such a shame to think of those beautiful stained glass windows being demolished.

I'm glad this is not my car.

I forget which street this is, but there are a lot of these potholes around. In a lot of places the ground actually liquefied which caused sinkholes, and in other places there are big piles of dirt and sand which has just bubbled up from somewhere.

Amidst all this catastrophe, mostly what I am thinking is lucky, lucky, lucky. Lucky no one died. Lucky that the city had plans for dealing with an event like this and that they seem to be running smoothly. Lucky that power is on for most of us. Lucky that most people will be able to claim insurance on the damage. Above all, lucky that me and mine and my little patch are safe and whole.

I am sure that in the weeks to come there will be plenty of things to be annoyed about, but for now I am counting my blessings.