As most of you know, ChristChurch was hit with a 7.1 magnitude level earthquake back in September. Interestingly enough, this was the same magnitude of the earthquake that did so much damage in Haiti not too long ago. It's crazy to look at the differences from news coverages and pictures online; All of us know how destructive the earthquake in Haiti was... thousands of people died and buried under rubble. Basically, the entire area was left in ruins and had to be (and still has to be) rebuilt. So so sad. Now, if you look at pictures from the earthquake that hit ChristChurch in September, you will see damage, yes, but "nothing" in comparison to the damage done in Haiti. No deaths were recorded. Buildings were hit pretty hard and a couple even fell down... but again, for the most part, no one was hurt and everything looked okay. Goes to show the differences between a 1st and 3rd world country in terms of engineering and construction.
After being here for two weeks, I have been able to see some the damage from that earthquake just four months ago... most of the damage, however, goes so much deeper than the cosmetic.
Driving down the streets, houses and buildings look normal and perfectly fine for the most part. Some of the roads are getting redone because of some huge cracks through the concrete and manholes actually protruding out of the ground. In downtown ChristChurch, a few buildings fell down and were destroyed (one being a brothel, so to be honest, I can't be too sad about that one). But if you look even closer, you will notice yellow or red flyers on a number of the houses... Why is that? Yellow flyers indicate that a house is temporarily okay to live in, but it will eventually, with notice and time, get torn down because there is enough damage done to the foundation that there needs to be reconstruction. Red flyers indicate that any inhabitants were removed from the house/building immediately and that it is uninhabitable resulting in it being torn down as soon as possible. So although things might look decent on the outside, the foundations of these houses and buildings are completely destroyed. Take a closer look and you can actually see that houses have literally shifted off their original foundations and just how many people are having to relocate and move because of one earthquake.
You can also see the damage of that earthquake in the people themselves. People are scared and have nightmares. I was talking to one woman at church and she told me that her daughter can't even sleep by herself anymore because she is afraid of another earthquake hitting. It's sad to see so many people so emotional and grief-stricken by this.
Personally, I have already felt three earthquakes. The biggest one I felt which was also the first one, was a 4.6 magnitude... I was at home on Friday night talking to some friends and all of a sudden, the house felt like it was rolling on marbles back and forth... at first, I thought my vision was going really shaky... but then I quickly realized I had just experienced my first earthquake. Since then, I have felt just a couple smaller ones that last just a couple seconds.
In fact, New Zealand has at LEAST one aftershock earthquake every day. It might not be in ChristChurch, but still... at least one earthquake a day, when, before the one in September, no earthquakes were even recorded in this country. Super crazy. Just pray for people and a mental ease as they live each day. Pray that they will not fear the tremors. Pray that people would rejoice in the fact that God is not giving people more than they can handle. Pray that people can be thankful that most of the damage is done to material things and that no one was injured or killed.
Personally, I think earthquakes are super interesting, but then again, I have never felt a 7.1 and hope I never have to!
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