Excerpt from a blog series by Dave Sewell on BNIonline
Christchurch – a city that is no stranger to earthquakes, having been hit by a 7.1 on September 4th 2010, less than six months ago, felt as if it was well on the road to recovery.
Many businesses got off to a good start in 2011, business still had its challenges and many of us had a way to go to get business at the level it was prior to September but there was an optimism in the air. An optimism that said 2011 was going to be a great year.
At 12.51pm on Tuesday 22nd February 2011 nature, in all its ferocity, shook Christchurch to its knees and with the crumbling of many iconic, historical buildings the optimism in the city was extinguished. As our Prime Minister, John Key aptly stated, this is New Zealand’s darkest hour.
My experience of this earthquake is by no means the most harrowing, but an experience it was and one I hope never to have to repeat.
2011 for me started off really well, I had several new clients come on board, I had joined the Business Mentors New Zealand so that I could give something back to the business community, I had a series of workshops planned the first of which is on the 10th March and I had found out I was to be a training provider for an initiative put in place by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, indeed I had my first client confirmed through its partner on the West Coast (South Island).
In a buoyant mood, I was driving across town to an appointment when my car started shaking, my immediate thought was “Oh no, not a puncture” but the shaking of the car became more violent, I was losing control of it, I slammed on the breaks and quickly pulled off to the side of the road, fearing my wheels had come loose.
It was only when I had stopped and the car kept shaking that I knew we had been hit by another major earthquake.
My first thought was I hope my wife and my 1year old son were safe, I called home, my wife didn’t pick up, I called again, this time my wife picks up the phone, I could hear the emotion in her voice as she was trying to control the tears so she could talk.
They were ok, albeit badly shaken, my son Lachlan was asleep when the earthquake hit, other than waking up, he was fine. I immediately perform a u-turn and race back home, hoping that my client was ok, with a thought to phone her when I get home. As I make my way from Riccarton back to Hoon Hay, the damage did not seem bad, there were several sets of traffic lights not working, which were the most challenging parts of the journey home.
As I get closer to my street I start seeing signs of liquefaction, just patches here and there, the thought went through my mind “I hope my street is ok”, it has suffered quite a bit of damage during the last quake.
I’m just about to turn down my street when I see, what can only be described as a scene from the sea side, there was extensive flooding in the street and that now familiar grey sand all over the place. I decided not to drive down it, instead opting to drive round the 5km block.
My wife and son were on the street talking to neighbours, I was so relieved to see them, we just hugged each other, trying to make sense of it all, why us, why Christchurch, why now?
>>> Read Dave’s complete post here
