Christchurch earthquake September 2010: More than two weeks later

The earthquake was more than two weeks ago now -- 17 days, almost -- and at last I find myself thinking of other things for most of the day. We have yet to go long without detectable aftershocks, and we had a 4.6 magnitude less than 24 hours ago which left the whole house wobbling for at least 30 seconds afterwards, but they are definitely less frequent.

I am back to my normal job in my normal office building, although not at my own desk. The earthquake damaged important things like fire stairs so some areas of the building are still out of bounds. I'm currently sitting on the fourth floor mezzanine, with a huge concrete beam and cracked plasterboard directly above my head.

The city is no longer in a state of emergency, as things have been downgraded to a state of urgency. This is probably small comfort to the people who have been made homeless, or who still don't know if their house is safe enough to live in. In some cases they are hoping for a demolition order, which will at least allow them to take the insurance money and move on. The alternative is living in a damaged house on a street that nobody will ever want to buy on, but there will definitely be people stuck in that position too. Property values for houses that border on demolition zones are going to plummet, as with every subdivision built on land that we now know is prone to liquefaction. Who is going to want to buy a house there? Nobody who can afford to live elsewhere, that's for sure.

Walking around the city centre is surreal. Life is going on as normal almost everywhere, but then there are pockets where it's only a matter of time before the demolition equipment moves in. These buildings are just around the corner from my old office building (the one we only moved from a week before the earthquake). It's hard to see the damage in the second photo but up close the building is cracked and broken. There is a red placard on the door and little hope that it will be made safe for business anytime soon:

And here's my old office building itself. Poor old girl, she has seen better days, but she's still standing! I don't know what the future holds for this 1934 structure but I do hope it escapes demolition despite the current damage. It's a heritage building so worth saving if that's possible.

Although we are still getting aftershocks, the last fortnight is starting to feel like some crazy dream. It's not a dream that I ever want to experience again in my lifetime but it's starting to feel like this is almost over for me. I am one of the lucky ones, for sure.