Some of the busiest people following the earthquake are tradespeople. There’ll be a heap of work to do with regards to making buildings safe, fixing water pipes and sorting out electrical problems. Christchurch builders, Carl and Maria McHaffie of McHaffie Homes, are running around the city right now taking care of earthquake damaged homes and workplaces.

One of their key specialities right now appears to be chimney removal! I joined them this morning to take down a friend’s chimney that looked like it was about to fall. We removed the bricks layer by layer from the top down using a mallet and chisel. By the time we got to the last 4 or 5 levels, we no longer needed the mallet as the mortar had crumbled and the bricks were completely loose following the earthquake. Another good aftershock and the whole thing would have collapsed and gone through the neighbour’s window.

If you have a chimney, wall, ceiling or anything else that needs a professional builder’s attention in Christchurch, give Carl and Maria a call on 021 406 112 or at the office (03) 351 5382 (although they’ll be better on the cellphone as they’ll probably be on the road). Tell them I sent you!

I’ve always had a bit of kit put aside for a rainy day. A few items that would seem fickle at the time but would really come in handy should the need arise. The recent earthquake in Christchurch has meant that I’ve put some of that kit into practice but, at the same time, I’ve found a good few areas where the kit could be improved.

Here’s my earthquake survival kit based on some stuff I already had plus a few things I wish’d that I had just after the earthquake last Saturday morning. Keep these in a couple of holdalls (sports bags) in the garage or spare room that you can grab easily in the event of an emergency. A lot of this I actually keep in a box in the car.

Earthquake Survival Kit

• Water - Buy a few large sealed plastic containers of water. These are usually good for 2 years or so (check the best before date). Filling up containers from the tap is ok but generally these are only good for a week or two.
• Food - Keep a decent amount of tinned food plus any packets of non-perishable food in reserve.
• Multi-tool – Something with a knife and a can-opener for all those tins.
• Torches – Head torches are great, particularly the newer LED models rather than the old-school bulbs. LEDs last a billion times longer and use up less battery power. If you can, get a standard head torch as well as a wind-up torch that doesn’t use any batteries at all.
• Batteries – These can be a pain as they can degrade if left for any amount of time, although Energizer now make batteries with much longer shelf-lives. Good for torches and radio.
• Candles – Really cheap so throw a couple of handfuls in there. If you don’t end up needing them, your neighbours might.
• Lighters – Everyone always says matches but matches can be a real pain in even slight wind. Best bet is to get both.
• Camping stove and gas – Not essential but a good idea. Particularly for boiling water.
• Spare clothes – Got some old, warm clothes and shoes lying around the house that you don’t wear much any more? Keep them in your kit.
• First Aid Kit – Make sure this is kept stocked and remember that some items in a first aid kit have an expiry date.
• Hand Sanitizer – Get the stuff that doesn’t need any water as you may not have a water supply. Health can deteriorate quickly after an earthquake due to sewer damage and any rubble clean up you may have to do.
• Battery powered or wind-up radio – Believe me, the first thing you want to know about once you’ve ensured your immediate safety following an earthquake is what is happening on a wider scale. Without knowing where the earthquake hit, we wanted to know if there was a tidal wave to follow and if we should head for the hills. Civil Defence will also broadcast their updates and warnings primarily through the radio.  Some cell-phones have radios but some, like mine, only work with the headset in and you don’t want to be scrabbling around for that, plus your cellphone battery should be preserved for emergencies.
• Water sterilising tablets – As in Christchurch, sewer pipes may burst and contaminate water used for drinking and washing. In the event of this, use sterilising tablets that can be bought at most outdoor and camping stores. If you don’t have these, you must boil water for at least 3 minutes on a rolling boil (i.e. hard out boiling!).
• Blankets/Sleeping bags – You may have to stay at emergency welfare centres so it can be a good idea to take you’re own sleeping gear with you.

Gear for the car

All of the above is great, and much of it is obvious, but there’s some stuff you could keep in the back of your car for situations you may come across. Don’t forget that other people could be in need and a helping hand plus a good rope could save days of stress.

• Fire Extinguishers – Instead of getting one large one, get two small ones. Keep one in the car and one in your house.
• Shovel – You can get a folding shovel from any good 4WD store.
• Tow ropes
• Axe
• Bow saw
• Jumper cables
• Tarpaulins (plus bungy cords or thin rope for fixing)

Other tips

• During an Earthquake
  There’s a bit of a discussion about whether you should stand in a doorway or get under the bed. I’ve since read that you should actually curl up somewhere next to something solid. Get down next to a solid chest of drawers and then anything falling above you should create a soft of roof above you – you’ll be inside an airspace with the solid furniture providing one of the walls.
• Driving
  One thing I noticed in the couple of days after the earthquake is that people suddenly drive like morons! Seriously. It’s insane. To be fair, everyone’s in their own head space and in a mild state of panic so driving can become erratic. People fly through traffic lights that aren’t working or veer across lanes without indicating … I mean … ok that’s fairly normal for Christchurch. On a side note, I had permission from the police to cross a cordon in order to get my vehicle to a work address to clear out some gear. Driving through abandoned city streets without any traffic and the wrong way down long stretches of one-way road is actually quite fun.
• Aftershocks
  There’s heaps of these and some of them can be almost as worse as the original. I had the mentality of ‘knock it over in advance’, i.e. I went around the house and took everything down of shelves and knocked over a few CD towers etc. so that there was nothing left with any distance to fall. Primarily, I made sure my PS3 was safe. It’s all about priorities.
• Building damage
  After an earthquake, there’s a strong pull within us that says ‘I want to be with my own stuff in my own place’ but this could get us in trouble. Make sure you have a good, thorough check of your home to ensure there’s no cracks in the walls or around the ground before you head back inside. Check your house again after each solid aftershock.
• Chimney damage
  These can cause the most problems for many homes. While your home may look fine, your tall brick chimney could be unstable and may fall onto and possibly through your roof with another aftershock or high winds. Cracks tend to appear towards the base of the chimney, near the roof level, plus mortar shakes itself into dust leaving the bricks unstable. If in doubt, knock it down! If you can safely get onto your roof, take a lump hammer and begin to remove the bricks from the top layer down until you’re level with the roof. Then seal it with a tarpaulin or butynol. If it’s really unstable, keep off the roof and try and get a rope around it to pull it down. If you can get hold of a builder, get them to take a look at it first.
• Power
  If you’ve still got power, that’s great. Make sure you check in the roof space to make sure nothing’s fallen against any of the wires. If you need to head out for a while, it’s a good idea to switch your power off. Even if everything’s fine now, another aftershock could damage your circuit board and start a fire. If switching the power off, have a think about shifting the contents of your freezer to a chilly bin or similar. Also check to see if your phones still work with the power off. Keep your own cellphone and other batteries on charge to make the most of the power while you still have it.
• Water
  If your water is off straight away, it could be due to no incoming pressure from the street supply. Alternatively, you may have a broken pipe between your house and the main supply. Have a check under your floor space for any leaks. Again, if you’re heading out, it’s a good idea to turn your water off – particularly if there was no pressure to start with. If the main supply suddenly comes back on and you have leaks then you could be in trouble. If you have no water then make sure you turn off your hot water cylinder. As your cylinder drains, you’ll suddenly be heating nothing but air and you’ll damage your thermostat. Remember that even if you turn the water off, you’ll have a full hot water cylinder and a cold water cylinder (in some cases) as well. The cold water may not be coming out of your tap due to no back pressure but you can still tap the cylinder itself. Once the water is back on, be aware of sewer pipes that may have leaked into the drinking water supply. Boil your water for at least 3 minutes on a rolling boil before use.

The ideal scenario in case of an earthquake is … be somewhere else when it happens!

Apparently this happened in a cordoned-off area. Just prior to this, a resident had moved a traffic cone so that she could drive through into the no-go-zone. She was then followed by 4 or 5 other cars before the fire engine came along.

Good argument for keeping away from the danger areas, even if the road looks ok.

I’ve just caught the end of a horrific story on the news of a woman that got caught in quicksand near Kaiapoi and sank up to her neck before managing to claw her way out. Mad stuff. Stay safe out there.

Update: Mark sure you boil your drinking water for at least 3 minutes on a rolling boil before drinking. Sewers have ruptured and may be leaking into drinking and washing water pipes.

Mark Lincoln, a local blog writer, was seen today helping the fire brigade save thousands of lives in Christchurch following the earthquake.

Ok, no that’s not true. I’ve been on the roof of a relative’s house clearing rubble and securing tarpaulins. The wind really picked up this morning but seems to have died down for the moment. There was a short and very light amount of rain but that’s passed for now too. Mostly we’ve been clearing bricks that are lying on the top of the roof and removing loose bricks from the chimney in case of further aftershocks.

While I was up there, two firemen poked their heads over the fence and asked if we needed assistance. They’ve been slowly driving along the streets in the area and asking locals if they need help. They’ve found that when they stop to talk to someone, other people come out of their houses to talk about other problems.

Overnight, there were plenty of aftershocks. For a while it felt like they were every 15 minutes or so. Some large enough to bang the cupboard doors and frighten the dog.

The city centre is still blocked off. My own office on Tuam Street is flooded and destroyed as the sprinklers turned on at the time of the quake and have been running ever since. Like many other places, the building looked fine from the outside but the inside was a different story. The CEO was allowed in under supervision of a police officer. On seeing the damage, the police office said ‘You have 60 seconds to get out of here’ and they made a sharp exit.

]]> http://www.nzraw.co.nz/news/new-zealand-news/local-blog-writer-assists-fire-brigade/feed/ 1 http://www.nzraw.co.nz/news/new-zealand-news/christchurch-earthquake-information/ http://www.nzraw.co.nz/news/new-zealand-news/christchurch-earthquake-information/#comments Sat, 04 Sep 2010 01:51:23 +0000 Mark http://www.nzraw.co.nz/?p=1387

The Minister of Civil Defence has just said that the earthquake that occurred at 4:35am, 7.1 on the richter scale, is the strongest in Christchurch since 1931. Check out the latest photos from the aftermath plus some initial Christchurch earthquake photos from just after the earthquake occurred.

A state of emergency has officially been called – this gives the authorities the power to arrest anyone in certain areas if they believe those people shouldn’t be there.

8 people have been rescued around Christchurch so far – some from electrically operated lifts – and there are 2 people in hospital with ‘serious’ injuries.

Large areas of Christchurch have been, and still are, without power and water although representatives say 90% of Christchurch will have power restored to them today. Areas of Bromley, Aranui and others were without power earlier this morning but power has since been restored. New Brighton roads appear to be mostly underwater. It’s tempting to drive through them in a 4WD but many are there due to large cracks in the road that lie hidden under the water.

The GeoNet website shows a large number of recent earthquakes, the majority from today, all of varying magnitudes and depths.

Aftershocks are expected for the days following the initial earthquake. Many could be reasonably substantial. The Christchurch City Council Civil Defence guys are setting up welfare centres where people can go if they feel unsafe in their own home. The centres will provide food, water, shelter and minor first aid. For more info, visit the Civil Defence website.

I’ve now managed to go for a walk around Avonside and survey the damage following the Christchurch earthquake, which has now been downgraded to 7.1 on the richter scale after earlier reports that it was 7.4.

The damage to the road around the Avonside boat club is pretty impressive. Bridges are closed and the police are patrolling the streets. As I write this, an occasional aftershock rocks the house which has 2 collapsed and 1 about-to-collapse chimneys on the roof.

New photos of the Christchurch earthquake

Geonet say aftershocks are likely and could carry on occurring weeks later. Potentially they could be quite large too.

I managed to get out in the truck this morning and grab some Christchurch earthquake photos and a video or two. Some areas look totally fine while others look like something from Armageddon.

Photos of the Christchurch Earthquake

I’ve yet to get some really awesome ones and now we’re being told to stay at home and keep out of the way. Large areas of Christchurch are flooded, have been cordoned off or are inaccessible due to bridges collapsing or huge cracks appearing in the road with water and sand coming up.

A roof collapsed near my friend’s place on Croydon Street in Spreydon.

The major hazard now is unsafe walls and tall brick chimneys that are close to collapse. Aftershocks can be big enough to cause further collapse and damage.

Bricks fallen on the pavement. You wouldn’t want to be near any chimneys and old walls right now.

Inside a roof space in Avonside. Could install one really big sky-light now.

Large cracks appearing in the park near Avonside. Earth has been pushed up along the centre of the river. The fields are flooded.

Earth pushed up all the way along the centre of a river … or have the cracks drained the river and the ridge was already there?

A carport collapse in Aranui.

Christchurch Earthquake Videos

I’ve only managed to capture a single clip or two. This is driving past an upper floor wall that had fallen into the road, exposes the contents of the room.

Christchurch Phone Networks

According to the news, the Vodafone cellphone towers are on battery backup and may only have 60 minutes run time left. Other reports say that Vodafone may only be the network that is bringing in back-up generators.

I’ll post again soon when I have better photos. Currently I’m sitting in a room with a collapsed chimney above it so probably shouldn’t sit around here too long in case of aftershocks!

Wait, don’t leave! It actually looks like it could be an interesting movie with a gripping story full of back-stabbing and … more back-stabbing.

From the trailer, with its soundtrack of “Creep” by Radiohead, it looks like Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg), the ‘founder’ and CEO of Facebook, is portrayed as a student who ends up out of his depth when a smooth-talking Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) – head of Napster – encourages him to pursue an idea that may never have been his to pursue.

The movie comes out in earl October in the US so probably not too much later here in New Zealand.

The official website is here and of course there’s a prominent button to recommend the movie on Facebook. I wonder what Zuckerberg thinks about that?

Yup that’s right. To hell with search engine optimisation. No links allowed! Maybe Google themselves even received an email that said “Hey, if we find our site in your results, heads will roll!”.

NBR pointed this out earlier today with an article about Auckland Council’s new website.

Ironically, NBR linked to the page that says that links are not allowed without explicit link permission from the people that give you permission to link.

Very shortly after this was mentioned on Twitter and picked up by influential tweeters such as myself (cough), the entire website collapsed.

Did the powers-that-be take the site down? Or perhaps there was a REASON no one was allowed to link to the site? Maybe linking to the site caused the server to melt-down? Are there desperate website technicians somewhere that are drowning in the emotional ocean that is the loss of their new website, sorry, Website? Is it all NBR’s fault?

Not too long after that, the website was reinstated but, alas, without the humourous “linking’s a no-no” condition. What a shame. Expecting this, the geniuses at NBR plus the genius at NZRAW (that’ll be me then) took snapshots of the message before it was removed. NBR added it to their post and you can see it here too:

Funny that other websites all suck so much that they need to be spelt with a lower-case wuh yet the Auckland Council Website is epic enough to be spelt with a capital wuh. Could this interesting style of proof-reading also explain why they have a news article on their homepage which announces the launch of the new website today, Thursday 1st July. Despite it being Wednesday, the 30th June?

So yes, while short-lived, this special condition brought joy and mirth to the hearts of many in the wuh wuh wuh. Thanks Auckland Council. To show our appreciation, here’s a free link.

Link.

Update: One of the Google ads that may come up on the right there is for the Yellow Pages councils category that features links to the city councils.

No, Yellow Pages! No linking! Bad Yellow Pages.

But last weekend’s World Cup football match for New Zealand just takes the piss! New Zealand is rightfully basking in the glory of what, at first glance, might otherwise appear to be a mediocre game.

The All White’s 1-all draw against Slovakia might not look like much on the surface but has actually been described as the greatest result in New Zealand’s footballing history.

Stuff.co.nz posted a fantastic photo of the goal, which shows the awesome look of triumph on goal scorer, Winston Reid’s, face.

In the mean time, Australia went on to lose 4-0 to Germany. Which brings me nicely to more Australia-trying-to-hog-the-glory..-ness.  In a game that the world clearly knew as New Zealand versus Slovakia, tell me what’s wrong with this Sydney Morning Herald headline:

Yup. Australasia 1 – Slovakia 1. Australasia? OK, New Zealand is part of Australasia but if it was England versus Slovakia you wouldn’t exactly say Europe 1 – Slovaka 1 would you? Unless you were from a country called Europia and you wanted to claim back some of the glory for yourself!

There’ll probably even be a lot of internationals (Americans) that will glance at that page and have no idea they’re talking about New Zealand. I mean let’s face it, they could be talking about Christmas Island versus Slovakia with a title like that.

The Sydney Morning Herald reporter that wrote it, John Huxley, opens the article with a scoff at the All White’s manliness and a reference to them being the least watchable team of the 32 nations and then goes on to slate the match.

At least the poll at the end of the article shows that 74% of the article’s readers think that the All Whites are “capable of emulating the Socceroos of 2006″. In your face, Huxley!

Let’s hope that New Zealand’s shining voice to the world, The Flight of the Conchords, will create a good novelty song about this one day.

Update: The Guardian newspaper in England gave New Zealand the respect they deserved:

“The World Cup may not have seen a great game yet, but the tournament has been startled … Nobody supposed this would be the fixture to set the World Cup alight at last. It might as well have been clad in asbestos for most of the time. New Zealand are absolved of blame. Their intent to attack was apparent in the use of three forwards and there is no shame in Herbert’s team making few chances.”