I am lucky. I am lucky for many reasons; the greatest of those reasons being my survival of the Christchurch earthquake on 22nd February 2011 and having the privilege to know the city before the earthquake.When I first started working in Christchurch in October 2010, I was inspired by the city; the layout; the gardens and parks and the buildings. At evenings and weekends I would go for walks to admire specific areas and take photographs to show my friends and family and I quickly got to know my way round. One of the things that struck me about the city was the resilience of the people. When I first arrived there were around 15 aftershocks per day which served as a constant reminder of the September earthquake. The people of Canterbury are strong and determined though and continued about their business with dignity.
My job as a Building Surveyor is never boring (with the exception of completing timesheets) and as somebody who enjoys nothing more than analysing building defects, there was plenty to keep me busy in Canterbury. During my time in Canterbury so far I have inspected churches, university buildings, commercial offices, industrial, hotels, and schools - all presenting varying levels of damage. I have now documented and recommended repairs on thousands of cracks along with other defects and have earned the unfortunate nick-name of ‘Earthquake Girl’.
Inspecting buildings in an active seismic zone can be frustrating, with Mother Nature seemingly waiting for a final report to be issued before sending another aftershock and requiring the building to be re-inspected. Along with the frustrations there is the humorous aspect to my job; discovering random graffiti in a roof void and discovering construction details that defy logic and often the laws of gravity. One of the reasons I love being a Building Surveyor is that I get to crawl around in the parts of buildings that few people ever get to see – or at least that’s what I thought. Whilst carrying out one particular post-earthquake inspection I discovered a series of illustrations within a redundant clock tower. The artist, whilst gifted with a black marker pen, clearly had some issues with scale as I do not think their illustrations were anatomically correct.
The impact of the September earthquake was significant for the people of Canterbury but the level of destruction caused by the February earthquake was beyond comprehension for many of us.
I was inspecting properties in the city centre on 22nd February when the earthquake struck. Myself and a colleague were on a scaffold on Manchester Street and managed to jump through a window once the shaking eased off and eventually made it to safety. I took this photograph a few short minutes before the quake struck and sadly some of the buildings visible are no longer standing.I may have survived the earthquake but I will not allow it to define me. Christchurch is no different – what will define Christchurch is the will of the Cantabrians; their strength and determination and the inspirational stories of survival. The memories of the earthquakes and thoughts of those who died as a result will always be there but we will learn from our experiences and use this knowledge to build a stronger city. The Christchurch of the future will be different to that which greeted me in October 2010 but I feel confident that it will still be a beautiful city capable of attracting visitors from around the world.
My colleagues and I at IGNITE remain committed to Christchurch and will continue to work as part of the wider inter-professional team to help repair our broken city.
Vic Richardson
Christchurch
