Reprise on my Earthquake Report for Day 8
… in which we experienced dust.
Even before today, dust has been a feature of this week as the liquefaction sludge dries out. But one unique aspect of Canterbury—besides earthquakes, as it now turns out—is the hot, dry, strong, nor’west wind that blows in across the plains. Today it blew up a storm, with wind gusts reported as being up to 90 km per hour, in a city that is absolutely full of the very fine liquefaction dust. So it was hot, because nor’westers are always hot, but even with windows closed and curtains drawn to keep it out, the fine dust filtered into every part of the house. As one friend emailed: “I am sure you are as covered in dust inside today as are we, it is vile stuff.”
On a more upbeat note, reports are positive on the clean-up, with the “student army” that has been helping people dig out all week being joined by farmer volunteers (the “farm-y army”) and the actual army—in this case squads of reservists ( we call them ‘territorials’ here) going into the worst affected suburbs to help with the clean up. Very good news for the residents in those areas.
Staying with the practical aspects of the situation in the suburbs, i.e. outside the (deservedly) high profile central area, one of the major concerns has to be the ongoing lack of sewage (due to damage done to the infrastructure.) A friend who lives in the badly hit suburb of Avonside says that it now ‘stinks of sewage.’ Definitely not good—and a situation with potential for considerable public health problems, including the possibility of epidemics, if it carries on. Something that I am sure the authorities are more than aware of, however, without me adding my two bits worth.
At a personal level, although my property is now at tidy-up stage with regards liquefaction, the next need is to try and organise repairs—starting with assessing the actual structural condition of the house, as opposed to my ‘best guess’, as well as the restoration of damaged sewage and stormwater lines, and the ‘interestingly re-contoured’ driveway. There’s also still a lot of need for support in the community, not just for practical help such as (yet more!) digging, but also the moral support of helping people simply decide “where to start”, and sometimes “just being there”, especially for those who are on their own.
Plus trying to still stay in touch with what was your “normal life”—on which note, I’ll be posting a separate UK Launch ‘Advisory‘ shortly!
I hope the repairs go well. Good luck with the repairs!
It seems to be a bit vague as to which repairs you can organise now, and which have to wait for an EQC assessment. We were able to get a plumber to fix a broken pipe underneath a basin, but apparently no plumbers are allowed under houses at the moment. It hadn’t occurred to me, but the reasons are rather obvious!
Of course your driveway will be the responsibility of your insurance company rather than EQC.