EARTHQUAKES, FLOODS, STORMS – say what you like about New Zealand, but you can’t say it’s boring

Since the first quake measuring 7.5 around midnight (which was actually two quakes) we have had over 1700 aftershocks, and it’s still not done yet.

image credit
Three cows left stranded when the ground disappeared during the quake

Here in Wellington, I was deployed along with the rest of my emergency response team to check the CBD for damage. We accompanied the engineers and building inspectors as they walked the streets of the city checking the buildings for damage. Our job was to act as safety for the inspectors and to report their findings directly to the emergency operations centre (EOC) over the radio.

I was paired up with a building inspector – a really nice guy, and we walked from the bottom end of the CBD to almost the other end of it. Our route was relatively unaffected by the quakes. There was superficial damage to some buildings, a little broken glass, but nothing major.

I could hear the other teams reporting in over the radio that they were finding significantly more damage however. One building was evacuated, we had to close another main street down to all traffic, as well as cordon off numerous sites that posed a risk to public safety.

Incredibly, we managed to clear the entire CBD and some of the motorways in about four hours. Then we were stood down and sent home to rest – we were about to get hit by a major storm that night.

We didn’t get called out during the night, but that didn’t mean I got much sleep. We still had aftershocks, high winds and pouring rain to contend with.

The next day the rain continued. Wellington was eventually cut off due to both motorways being flooded and impacted by slips.

We were on standby all day in case we were needed, and it looked close a couple of times.

Then at 5pm we were called out to attend a building in danger of imminent collapse. A main structure of the building had failed and it had started to lean.

We helped USAR command with the logistics of setting up and manning cordons. This is not usually our role, but with the city stretched to the limit, manpower was in short supply, so we stepped into the breech.

Our shift finished around 12.30am and we went home to try and get some sleep so we could be back onsite at 6am to do it all over again.

So another night of almost no sleep was had.

Our luck seemed to have turned a little when our team leader (bless him!) managed to get us out of doing another shift so soon after our last one. So we got a bit of a sleep in.

Now, I’m trying to work with a foggy brain, catching up on things like food, washing etc. I need to sort my kit out and have it all ready to go for tomorrow.

Why?

Because a big southerly storm is due to hit Wellington on Thursday, and we are likely to be needed again.

For a city that has been hammered so far this week, it has coped really well. I have heard lots of stories of people helping each other, taking in strangers and friends and looking after them. While there has been some damage to the infrastructure, for the most part, the city is up and running and carrying on with the day-to-day business of being the world’s coolest little capital.
I’ll include some links off to various bits of news coverage so you can have a look at what’s happened, and what is still happening. If you spot a little, old, grey-haired man in them, that’s probably me -)

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/86416304/live-north-canterbury-quake

http://www.geonet.org.nz/quakes/felt - live feed of the quakes as they happen

http://www.geonet.org.nz/quakes/statistics - a cool map that shows where the quakes have happened. Zoom in towards Wellington (at the bottom of the North Island) to get a good idea of what we are dealing with.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/86497605/Serious-concerns-over-stability-of-building-in-central-Wellington - I even made the news!

Read this also from @kiwideb who lives just over the hill from me
https://steemit.com/life/@kiwideb/the-latest-news-on-the-new-zealand-earthquake