Today marks a decade since a devastating series of earthquakes, changed the lives of all in Christchurch and Canterbury. My blogs of the time include the following, found here and here.
Several media articles mark the event along with a memorial service held at lunch time. Some of note include memories of the event from a group of teenagers, who were five years old at the time and experienced the earthquake whilst at Redcliffs school (where the cliff behind the school collapsed); then and now pictures featured in The Press this morning; and stories from local businesses of the difficult decade of struggle and challenge to continue.
After the physical earthquakes, came many years of struggle
for many, seeing their homes ‘red-zoned’, moving and settling into new homes,
mostly into the suburbs ringing the city, and seeing so much of the physical
geography of Christchurch change from month to month as large swathes of the
city was demolished and very gradually rebuilt.
There were also other shared challenges, especially the 2017
Kaikoura earthquakes, the horrendous 2019 mosque attack and then the 2020
pandemic, still being played out this year as NZ awaits the effects of the roll
out of a vaccination programme (beginning this week) and the populace lives behind closed borders.
All in, it has been 10 years of continual need to be
‘agile’, not only at work and home but through our entire community. The
kindness of everyone has been the best attribute, supporting everyone through
trying times. Dr. Mazharuddin Syed Ahmeh provides an example of how after
witnessing the attack at the Linwood mosque, his family were cowering in fear in
their home and then found their neighbours forming a ‘human wall’ outside their
home that evening to protect his family.
Therefore, tragedy can, if there is resolve, be worked through. Resilience is a word that is used too often but experiencing the need to be resilient, does bring into focus, the hard work that is required, to be continually tough but also empathetic and kind. Kia kaha Christchurch.
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