Hard News: Little pieces of a big picture
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I have a friend staying from Washington. She's been inundated since yesterday morning by concerned messages from her friends. She's had to explain NZ geography to them and that the earthquake was in the south island and she is in the north.
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@Izogi reports back from family and friends, plus lots of photos on FB has it that there are definitely areas of the city that have been badly hit eg a new subdivision in Bexley, but even in the badly hit areas, there can be houses that are virtually destroyed whilst their neighbours are totally ok. There are a lot of brick buildings/homes that have fared badly. City wide, it's not known what damage has been done to water mains/sewage pipes, so everyone is being asked to boil water and conserve it where possible, even if they are otherwise ok. My dad said tonight that more and more sad stories just keep rolling in. (on a good note, he works at Bunnings, and can report that Bob the Baby et al are all well :) ). I don't think the disaster will reach the levels of what happened in Chile, but it will undoubtedly have a huge impact economically on NZ. Maybe they'll cancel those tax cuts now...?
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Maybe they'll cancel those tax cuts now...?
Using humour: now that's the spirit.
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@giovanni - no doubt you've seen this already?
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Bugger. The winds have arrived in Chch just as they drop in Dunedin :(
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Was anything in Christchurch not damaged? I've heard rumours.
You can go for blocks through the city fringe areas of small factories etc. and never know there'd been a natural disaster. Anything reinforced concrete seems unaffected. Then you turn a corner and there's bricks (always bricks) all over the footpath, just like you see in the pictures.
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The Alvarados story gets better
I heard an ad on the radio yesterday evening around 730 pm
"Alvarados - Real Mexican Food, Real Mexican Drama!"
I couldn't believe it, given that the interior of AlvaRados is one of the most shown photos of the quake - John Key was standing in front of it.
They obviously have a sense of humour (and the food was great too - we had our Xmas do there last year). http://www.alvarado.co.nz/
(And thanks Russell - you're welcome for the photos. Thanks for the tickets to the Quiz tonight, where I won a sub to Metro (yay, get to read David and Emma!) for being the person who had come the farthest to attend).
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There were a lot of brick chimneys on the West Coast prior to Inangahua.
There are extremely few brick chimneys anywhere on the West Coast since then - now....(and not a lot of brick buildings...let's acknowledge that an anciently inhabited country, also prone to earthquakes - we are acknowledging Japan here - mainly uses timber, framing & cladding, for housing. And their building regulations for commercial buildings/other structures are really good (their oversight of the regs - well, we all have our little derelictions-)
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(And thanks Russell - you're welcome for the photos. Thanks for the tickets to the Quiz tonight, where I won a sub to Metro (yay, get to read David and Emma!) for being the person who had come the farthest to attend).
I was there too (although I didn't stay till the end) but I didn't know what you looked like!
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I wish I'd found out about the 'quake through Twitter. Instead I found out about it through real-life twitter:
@robyn WTF? Why am I awake?
@clockradio it's 4.36 wake up!!!!
@bookcase ha ha ha I'm shaking!!!
@robyn Is it an earthquake?
@myteriousobject I'm just going to clatter for a bit... dare you turn on the lights?
@bookcase i might fall over lolz
@robyn I can't be bothered. I'm going back to sleep.
@bookcase ok ill be quite now :-) -
I see that even bookcases now use the 'z' affectation when lolling. Damm these kids and their internet memes@,
I guess it is good they are at least not wilfully falling over just for the lulz. Small mercies etc.
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That @bookcase is a wag, isn't he?
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Was anything in Christchurch not damaged? I've heard rumours.
I know with this kind of event it's normal for media, and everyone, to focus on damage, and understandably. It can sometimes give a skewed picture of things though.
Most of my friends live in the student area of Sockburn/Upper Riccarton/Riccarton and there seems to be nary a piece of structural damage, bar the old stone church at Church Corner, which took it quite hard. They all report TVs and bookshelves down but that's about it.
Basically it's down to liquefaction; that area of the city doesn't have nearly as much potential for it, and so damage was limited. The eastern suburbs did experience liquefaction, and got properly munted.
(I have to say: there's a certain amount of academic satisfaction in seeing the stuff I got taught would happen in an earthquake of this magnitude actually occur.)
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"Best viewed in IE 5.5 or later."
A long time since I've seen that.
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I got on the tweets at a leisurely 8.25am, to find a couple of "we're okay" messages from Emma Hart and an anxious query from Nat Torkington as to the welfare of David Haywood and his family. As I was doing that, Jolisa published her post to Public Address.
Time zones, the chronically-tardy-person's friend. Actually, I actually sat on that post for about an hour thinking "Emma or Russell will post something, any minute now. Russell will definitely post. I should hold off." When it got to 8.30 NZT and still no Radio Free Russell, I assumed Rangitoto had opportunistically taken out Auckland. Since Wellington seemed a bit quiet as well, I could well have been PA's sole survivor, broadcasting to the world.
(Which, Civil Defense-ishly, bit of a worry not to have moderating privileges).
It was quite On the Beach for a minute there, really.
And then Russell showed up and I was all "OMG I've stepped on some serious Burnside blogging turf. There's gonna be a rumble." Luckily it stayed civil.
Our Chilean friends were very concerned.
Ours too. Older child's school had a fundraiser earlier in the year, for a classmate who comes from Concepcion, so it was quite close to home. The mum of the other Chilean child in the class was saying yesterday that she wasn't at all reassured by early reports that there were no major injuries or deaths in Chch, as that had been the tenor of the early reports from Concepcion as well.
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@Robyn - it's the real-life RTs over the following days that really annoy.
@darfield SHAKE RATTLE ROLL
@chch omfg RT@Darfield SHAKE RATTLE ROLL
@darfield SHAKE
@chch RT @Darfield SHAKE #donotlike
@darfield RATTLE
@chch RT @Darfield RATTLE #dudewtf
@darfield ROLL
@chch Unfollow @Darfield dammit -
"Emma or Russell will post something, any minute now."
No disrespect to Dr H, but I know him to be a) generally a night-owl and b) a sensitive plant who revises almost more obsessively than I do.
i.e. in the blog potato-sack race, if there is one, we are hobbling three-leggedly some way behind the pack, cradlng our bloggy eggs on tiny spoons.
I am still marvelling at having posted anything on the day, and very grateful for the gathered information and good cheer on that thread. And very much looking forward to posts from our Chch correspondents, once they get their heads together and have a spare moment.
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Time zones, the chronically-tardy-person's friend.
Which might be time to note for people not to pay any attention to the timestamps on the various tweets. Twitter doesn't do local time at all well.
Actually, I actually sat on that post for about an hour thinking "Emma or Russell will post something, any minute now. Russell will definitely post. I should hold off." When it got to 8.30 NZT and still no Radio Free Russell, I assumed Rangitoto had opportunistically taken out Auckland.
Can't a mummy and daddy have some special cuddles time on a Saturday morning?
I was just getting to grips with the idea that the earth had actually moved, so I was extremely grateful to you for stepping in and getting together a post. It was so good that we had a place to check in.
Also, also, I've belatedly realised (duh!) that I do have Ian Dalziel's mobile no., so I've just texted him and will pass on any news.
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Actually, I actually sat on that post for about an hour thinking "Emma or Russell will post something, any minute now. Russell will definitely post. I should hold off." When it got to 8.30 NZT and still no Radio Free Russell, I assumed Rangitoto had opportunistically taken out Auckland.
Can't a mummy and daddy have some special cuddles time on a Saturday morning?
I was just getting to grips with the idea that the earth had actually moved,
As special a place as you hold in my heart, Russell, that. my dear, was just TMI. Even in jest.
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YAY!
Ian Daziel has just replied by text. They've lost a couple of chimneys, have books in disarray (I dread to think!) but are otherwise good.
Also, for those who know him, Blair Parkes from the L.E.D.s and his family are fine (they live in a low-lying street in New Brighton, so I'd been a bit worried about flooding).
Ian will be along here later this morning.
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xkcd
Priceless
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As special a place as you hold in my heart, Russell, that. my dear, was just TMI. Even in jest.
Hard News Indeed: The Bootknockin' Report
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My Mum used to say swearing was a sign of a limited vocabulary, but the word "Devestation" and "devestated" now means absolutely nothing.
Ugh Paul Henry's reached new depths - I thought that it was bad enough that he was talking about the election so soon, but then to talking about looting the jeweller.
Double Ugh.
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I thought that photo was a stock one found by Googling "earthquake child victim" on Getty. Nice to know they have some journalistic standards.
Up here in the Hutt, I was breathlessly informed of widespread flooding on my way to work. Actually, it's full, but nowhere near the stopbanks, which are huge. A car park and a road that runs inside the banks got flooded, that's all.
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