Christchurch earthquake September 2010, day ten

I can hardly believe it is Day 10 already. Ten days of trauma, stress, aftershocks, Civil Defence, uncertainty, and unity. We are still getting detectable aftershocks, but not as strong (nothing today has exceeded 4.1 so far) and not as frequent. I hardly dare to say it but it seems like we are getting back to normal. The scientists say there's still a risk of another 5 or 6, but with every hour that passes that risk lessens.

Today was a day off Civil Defence duties for me and Skry. We spent a few hours righting in the inside of the house (putting the bookcases back up if undamaged, throwing out the broken one, replacing things that have been on the floor for more than a week), and then enjoyed a couple of hours reading on the deck in the sunshine. It felt like summer holidays, not a state of emergency. He is off for another day but I'm back on the front desk tomorrow afternoon. I have been doing front desk duty at the Emergency Operations Centre, directing people to the right place or finding the right person for them to talk to. The army is helping me -- army reserves in camo uniform man the sign-in/sign-out desk -- and it has been quite enjoyable knowing that I am doing something genuinely useful. It can be upsetting when people come in who are facing the loss of their business or all their rental properties, but thank goodness I haven't had to deal with anybody who is losing their home. That must be horrible for everybody talking to them as well as the person themselves.


It will be a long time before Christchurch is back to normal, but for now I am just enjoying the normal feeling that we got today. I can deal with the ground shaking so long as nothing else falls down.