Recent Posts
A Flag Conundrum
You may or may not know, but my home country, New Zealand, is currently trying to decide whether we will change our national flag or not. By comparison to all the other horrible things going on in the world, this one decision is minor, but it’s actually quite important. A flag helps define a nation’s identity on the international scene. However, in this case…
Why do we have earthquakes? Let the children explain…
On February 22, 2011, at 12:51pm (NZST), a 6.3 magnitude quake hit. The epicentre was only 10 km (6 miles) from the centre of Christchurch and at a depth of 5 km (3.1 miles). The residents of Christchurch had been living with aftershocks from a 7.1 quake that occurred 6 months prior. While the quake was not as strong as the September quake, the surface effect forces were far greater. The simultaneous vertical and horizontal ground movement was near impossible for buildings to survive. An already quake-crippled city was decimated.Much of Christchurch is still recovering from those quakes 5 years ago, and the recent 5.7 magnitude that we had just over […]
Misinformed Fathers and Aftershocks…
She sat at the dining room table staring at the laptop. The nerves were shot and she wasn’t getting much sleep, but one thing was helping with her mental sanity — her writing. Ironically, the anxiety brought on by the quaky earth fueled the tension of her story.
Her cell phone chimed. It was a message from her father. “Don’t worry about clean up at work. It’s in the street.” Her jaw dropped. Without pause, she flicked over to her web browser and brought up the University of Canterbury website, searching for signs of what her father was talking about. Her heart raced out of control with worry for her colleagues. While she had been working from home when the quake hit, she had been in email communication with those in the lab. She was afraid that one of them had died and she didn’t know.
No More Music — Remembering February 22, 2011
Recently, I sent out a request for others to share their memories of the Christchurch earthquakes that occurred five years ago. To my pleasant surprise, some have come forward with stories so moving that I felt it was important to share them with the world. Over the course of the next few weeks, I will be sharing some of the stories sent to me about that day as well as sharing a few of my own. The February 2011 quake changed our lives forever, but has made the city of Christchurch a stronger community. J. L. O’Rourke was working in the office of the Christchurch School of Music in the […]
Dun Loo — A Port-a-Loo in Christchurch
Recently, I sent out a request for others to share their memories of the Christchurch earthquakes that occurred five years ago. To my pleasant surprise, some have come forward with stories so moving that I felt it was important to share them with the world. Over the course of the next few weeks, I will be sharing some of the stories sent to me about that day as well as sharing a few of my own. The February 2011 quake changed our lives forever, but has made the city of Christchurch a stronger community. Throughout Christchurch, many were without working toilets for months on end. Everywhere you looked, there would […]
Census Cancelled — Remembering February 22, 2011
Recently, I sent out a request for others to share their memories of the Christchurch earthquakes that occurred five years ago. To my pleasant surprise, some have come forward with stories so moving that I felt it was important to share them with the world. Over the course of the next few weeks, I will be sharing some of the stories sent to me about that day as well as sharing a few of my own. The February 2011 quake changed our lives forever, but has made the city of Christchurch a stronger community. Michael Mohr was working as a census worker in Auckland when the February quake struck. Needless to […]