Untitled

Never in my life did I think I’d experience an event as terrifying as the 2010 September 4th 7.1 Christchurch earthquake. Just before 1pm on the 22nd a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the outskirts of the city. This quake was far more violent. Far more terrifying.

I was in our office in Poplar St. On the top floor of an old 1920’s era brick building:

The shaking was immediate and violent. There was no warning rumble, it hit at full force, we ran for the door frames. As I ran, I saw the 19” server rack bending and flexing what must have been a metre or so side to side like a tall column of jelly.

From the shelter of the door frame, as the shaking became more violent, I could see the roof structure moving independent of the walls. Daylight streamed into the room as the roof moved off the walls. The noise was immediate, and horrendous. Breaking glass, bricks shifting, splintering wood. You could see out the windows the surrounding buildings rolling and moving side to side unnaturally. The walls then started to fail. First the parapets, followed by the whole east side wall. The room filled with daylight, then seconds later, mortar dust engulfed the whole room. I couldn’t see more than half a meter in front of me. We waited for the shaking to stop, to avoid falling masonry.

Broken bricks from an internal wall were strew all over the stair well, and bricks littered the lane outside. The only exit to the office is in the middle of those bricks just before the pink sign on the left. People scrambled over the bricks a foot or two deep, trying not to trip, but get out into clear air as soon as possible.

(Below: Cnr. Ash St & Poplar St. looking towards Tuam St.)

(Below: Cnr. Ash St & Poplar St. looking towards Lichfield St.)

Video of Poplar Street looking south from Ash Street. Water spewing from the Poplar Mews apartments to the right, parapets and parts of the building collapsed into the lane, and major structural damage to the building. It had been earthquake strengthened:

http://vimeo.com/20277904

Everyone got out of our building safely. The Twisted Hop and Mitchellis inhabitants escaped without injury. The steel exoskeleton applied to the building on the corner of Poplar & Lichfield Street after the Sept. 4th quake, buckled under the stress. Large sections of bricks fell from the structure:

The only real exit from the lane was via Ash Street towards Madras Street. There was major liquefaction down there, broken sewer and water mains, the backs of the old brick warehouses precariously teetering on collapse. Once out on Madras Street things looked far worse.

(Below: Madras Street Looking South. Edward Gibbon Plumbing Supplies)

(Below: Madras Street Looking South. Florax Building)

Video of Madras Street looking south:

http://vimeo.com/20277985

The smell then hit me. The acrid stench of burning wood and building materials combined with liquid petroleum gas from ruptured mains. Turning to the north, I saw the smoke (as opposed to dust clouds). The next block down the CTV building was on fire. It had totally collapsed.

http://vimeo.com/20277721

The streets were cordoned off extremely quickly. So I headed back to Lichfield Street to walk around the cordons to get home. Walking around, down Barbadoes Street then towards Latimer Square, the triage area had already been setup, the square was filled with hundreds of office workers, many with injuries cuts from falling objects. An old wooden building had collapsed on the west side of the square:

Heading down Worcester Street towards Manchester Street. The carnage got worse.

The previously damaged and reinforced Octogan Restaurant was destroyed. The temporary blue steel reinforcing just buckled.

Across the road, another restaurant totally destroyed:

Turning north down Manchester Street the damage was evident. There wasn’t a building in the street which hadn’t collapsed or shown major structural damage:

The Civic destroyed:

Turning west down Armagh Street, people trapped in the Forsyth Barr Building were breaking windows and preparing to escape:

I had past people on the street saying that they had seen the Cathedral spire collapse in front of them. Now on the corner of Armagh and Colombo St, I got a glimpse of the damage:

Victoria Square suffered severe liquefaction:

Thats the end of the photos, the rest of the walk home took me through Hagley Park, where the people had been evacuated to from The George Hotel, and the many multi-story apartment buildings down Park Terrace. Then through heavy liquefaction around Garden Road and home to Idris Road.

Layton