At the end of a busy day seeing off the weekend crew and welcoming the new teams from AUS, AUE & NZ, I stopped into McDonalds with Major David Dalberg to discuss the agenda for the morning briefing over coffee. The store was busy as usual and while we were enjoying a relaxing moment we were rocked by a 5.1 aftershock. This was by far the worst I have felt since being here and it gave the building a really decent shake. You could literally see it move from side to side and back and forth. I have never seen or experienced anything like this! Everybody in the store stopped and you could see the very real concern in people's faces. There was that awkward moment - do we stay, or do we get out of here? Strangely enough, despite the initial fear, everybody went back to business as usual when it was over.
I couldn't help but to wonder how the locals who had experienced both earthquakes in Sept and Feb were feeling in that moment. The reality is they live daily with the uncertainty and fear that it may happen again. We have encountered so many people who are not only dealing with what they have lost but are unsure whether to rebuild or relocate. For many, the impact of both quakes has taken its toll and they have abandoned Christchurch. For others, they are still navigating their way through the broken pieces of their lives. After every significant aftershock you wonder if the emotional and practical support we have provided to date is being undone by the constant threat to people's emotional and physical well-being?
Imagine the workload of the authorities who have the laborious task of inspecting damaged buildings. What was given a green sticker may now be unsafe, those given yellow may well be too dangerous to enter. It seems like an endless task. Then there is the City Council busy doing street repairs. Will their hard work be in vain? It is a massive recovery process that will run into the billions of dollars and will take years to restore this beautiful city to its former glory.
No words can capture the extraordinary effort that is being made by government and non-government groups who are working tirelessly to respond to this crisis. From my vantage point, I think the NZ people should take a lot of pride in their resilience and responsiveness to this disaster. We often get praised by the locals for coming over to help, but I want to praise the locals for not giving up and for their determination to "rise up" above their circumstances.
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