How does Christchurch look today?

Christchurch counted its 11,000th earthquake since September 4th, 2010, today. It has been more than two years since the first Christchurch earthquake of September 4th, 2010. It is almost two years since the smaller, but more devastating aftershock, of February 22nd, 2011 that claimed 185 lives.

To most of the rest of New Zealand and the world, those earthquakes are something that happened in the past and are rarely mentioned or considered. Everyone has moved on and I get the feeling that people outside of Christchurch think Christchurch has also moved on and is full-swing into rebuild and the forgetting of the past.

Just before Christmas last year, Campbell Live (a NZ current affairs program), toured the red zone in Christchurch. They were able to compare streets of the central city with how they look today (December 2012) and how they looked when the Google street-view cameras drove through prior to the beginning of the Canterbury earthquake sequence. It’s available online – http://www.3news.co.nz/Another-year-of-quake-coverage/tabid/367/articleID/281066/Default.aspx. Watch it. I think you will be shocked by what you see.

Posted

January 17, 2013

Earthquakes

Rachel M

Tags:

christchurch, earthquake, earthquakes, red zone

Comments

12 responses to “How does Christchurch look today?”

Jed

January 17, 2013

It was interesting to read this article as with http://www.canterburyquakelive.co.nz we hit 13,000 quakes in December 2012. Today they are showing 13,127 quakes since Sept 2010. Not sure where the other 2,127 come from – Geonet may only record those 2 mag and above…
Also go to the above link and look at “Years”. It shows all the quakes we used to get pre Sept 2010 – and some other really interesting data for NZ.

Reply
1. quakerat
  
  January 17, 2013
  
  It’s interesting that according to the graph on that site, the big earthquakes of the 1930s don’t have the similar number of accompanying aftershocks that Christchurch has had. I suspect that they did, they just didn’t have the same quality of seismic monitoring to record them all.
  
  Reply
Bronwyn M

January 18, 2013

The Campbell LIve program seems to have a block on it. I can’t view it. It would have been interesting.

Reply
1. quakerat
  
  January 19, 2013
  
  I sent an email to TV3 about it to ask whether Aussies can view this. Will let you know what they say. My niece in Switzerland can view it so there’s no broad international block. Give it another try in a day or two.
  
  Reply
Frances

January 18, 2013

Wow, very interesting video. I had no idea it looked like that now…

Reply
1. quakerat
  
  January 19, 2013
  
  very sad.
  
  Reply
Eve Spence

January 20, 2013

Nothing much seems to have changed at all, Rach. It all looks so surreal still and a tragic reminder of how fragile life can be. Didn’t have any trouble viewing it on my i-pad though. Followed on with all the bushfire videos from Christchurch. Not a great part of the world to be in right now. Managed to resist the one showing John Keys fainting at dinner!

Reply
1. quakerat
  
  January 21, 2013
  
  It has changed completely since before the earthquakes began though don’t you think? It’s almost unrecognizable. A sort of desert of nothing.
  
  Reply
Eve Spence

January 21, 2013

Yes, that’s what I meant. It looks just as it did the last time I looked through all the post-quake photos including some that you posted. The media exposure was huge at the time and it has left a lasting impression. One doesn’t forget. It’s just I was expecting more to have changed by now.

Reply
1. quakerat
  
  January 22, 2013
  
  I too was expecting some construction to have gone on. But what I wasn’t expecting was the demolition of practically everything. The last time I saw the city there were lots of buildings there, albeit earthquake-damaged ones. They’ve spent the last year demolishing everything.
  
  Reply
Mark Lincoln (@marklincoln)

January 28, 2013

There are still some areas that seem to have bypassed media attention somehow – particularly the residential areas. I took these photos just a few days ago in the suburb next to mine, Bexley. Not much has changed here in two years! http://www.nzraw.co.nz/earthquake/earthquake-update-on-bexley/

Reply
1. quakerat
  
  January 28, 2013
  
  Thanks so much for those, Mark. It looks like a ghost town. Does anyone, other than possibly in the last photo, live there?
  
  Reply