Chch Earthquake

[Shell]

Hope everyone's doing ok after today's earthquake The poor cathedral

[Chang]

I'm not from Christchurch, but yes it is as bad as the media portray it.

There are dozens to hundreds of people still believed to be trapped alive in building rubble. The city has gone into a state of emergency.

Edited February 22, 2011 by Chang

[AHR31]

As a Kiwi living in Brisbane since '91 I have forgotten just what it was like to be in a quake, floods & cyclones are now my thing! After seeing the news tonight it has me really worried for the rest of my family & friends still living in NZ including an uncle & aunt in Christchurch. Stay safe everyone, our thoughts & prayers go out to all of those affected by todays disaster.

[SkylineObsession]

I felt it at work in Dunedin (5+ hours south of Chch). And the first aftershock too.

Not good.

[Boof R33]

i was there for a holiday a month ago even the aftershocks where bad enough for me. the damage then to some of the buildings was bad like the cathedral big cracks in it. it was such a nice place to holiday in though.

[GTR-N1]

How are people getting on with their lives?

Are there many fault lines through Christchurch?

Too unsafe to rebuild?

Many people moved away?

Infrastructure repairs?

People have had to change habits to shop, get hair done, get fuel, get to work, change jobs?

Morale amongst those who are sticking it out?

Resilience of the little children? Afraid of more to come?

[Berk]

Just happened again, 5.8 followed by a 5.3.

Stay tuned to the Chunky News Network for more updates!

[GTR-N1]

Ghost-town?

[Berk]

If anyone has been to Sumner, near Christchurch, if you recall that big rock that has been hollowed out by the waves down there on the beach near the main strip, you know the one, you can walk under it and on top of it. Well it caved in, crazy. Also, the pub in Sumner took a boulder to the roof and is gonsky and most of the houses on the hill (you know all the rich nice ones) are abandoned/wrecked. Pretty sad really.

[Spurdo]

meh. most people are still here. one things for sure this whole thing definitely weeded out all the wusses from chch. i believe most of them have headed to australia so you guys have fun accommodating our most un-resilient lol.

[GTR-N1]

So Jon and others,

How have the quakes affected...

* Tourism

* Utilities

* Emergeny Services

* Charities

* Small Business

* Transport

* Real Estate Values

* Incidences of Looting

* Law and Order

???

[Spurdo]

well i can only really comment on a few of those areas.

small businesses, the ones that survived the quake and had good insurance, actually did quite well. i'm a manager at a pizza shop and we had a very busy year due to a lot of other places having to shut down so those left standing did quite well. those who weren't left standing, well that all depended on your insurance policy.

immediately after the quakes, shit was crazy, we had to reduce our opening hours substantially so that we wouldn't run out of stock, as for the first few weeks after the quake we had supply issues because our suppliers were adversely affected. we had lines of customers out the door for hours on end, it was ridiculous.

a lot of buildings in christchurch really needed a good earthquake and i can imagine theres a lot of owners that would have been stoked that they had insurance because they sure as hell weren't spending money in a hurry to fix them up, given the economy of the last few years.

from what i gather, looting only really occurred a bit in the weeks immediately following the quakes, inside the cordoned off cbd anyway. the police came down very hard on those caught in the act and there was really no tolerance for it at all and it was much publicized by the media here so i think that would have put a lot of would be criminals off.

initially real estate prices kind of died off as demand disappeared and a lot of people were just trying to get the hell out of christchurch. that said, now though, housing is now at a premium because so many houses have been deemed uninhabitable and everyone's trying to find somewhere else to live it's pushed prices up quite substantially, with insurance companies having to pay the rent for people to relocate, property owners can pretty much name their price lol. my parents have just been transferred with work over to queensland and have rented out their property here for the next 12-24 months. this time last year they were also facing the possibility of going over and the rental for their place was only going to be around ~$450 per week (this is a nice modern house, 2 story, 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom, on a 10-acre block). but by now they were told to list at $550 per week, so they advertised it and got inundated with inquiries, people were offering to pay the first 12 months in advance. also my sister who owns a place in christchurch is moving to auckland with work, she's renting out her place for $700 a week! (3 bedroom, 1 bathroom, small section, no yard etc), its not even a modern place, albeit tidy. shits crazy.

[GTR-N1]

So I take it (after joining some dots), that earthquake insurance is well nigh impossible right now?

What's the population decrease? Substantial?

Even with minor tremors, residents can be conditioned into being unnerved?

[SkylineObsession]

I think i read that either 10,000 or 19,000 people have left the city so far, some may have come back though.

[GTR-N1]

Sigh...

...such a beautiful place!

...but oh so risky!

[Spurdo]

yeah i haven't into the numbers much but it was a fair few people. a lot of people would have done it out of necessity though as school's/workplaces couldn't re-open and had to head elsewhere to keep incomes and kids at school etc.

i would think most have eventually come back, i sure as hell haven't noticed fewer people around. if anything the rest of the city feels busier because no one's allowed inside the cbd.

and yeah for a time, insurance companies were refusing to take on new policies in christchurch. fair enough too with aftershocks happening all the time but they've all but stopped now. just felt our first one in a while yesterday. we can still get insurance but obviously it'll be significantly more expensive now.

[GTR-N1]

Well I guess owners will pay particular attention to the fine print on the Policy and PDS Jon.

And after an absence of tremors, how does a single 'hit' grab you? Unnerving?

[GTR-N1]

AGAIN! > necessitating evacuations > downtown Christchurch and where else???

[Spurdo]

Well I guess owners will pay particular attention to the fine print on the Policy and PDS Jon.

And after an absence of tremors, how does a single 'hit' grab you? Unnerving?

na to be honest i dont even blink at them any more. most of us feel it happening and we might make eye contact just to confirm its not just me.. then just.. carry on. big whoop.

AGAIN! > necessitating evacuations > downtown Christchurch and where else???

yeah i heard a couple places had to evac but it would have just been precautionary, and then some media hype thrown into the mix. everyone i know just continued about their business as if nothing happened.