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I was in Christchurch for the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes that killed 185 people and critically damaged essentially every building within the city centre.
The whole thing was pretty surreal. My family were pretty lucky, our house was lightly damaged (old timber frame, moved ~2cm off its piles but was livable while that was fixed) and we had a few things break (including a 60L fishtank that nearly landed on me as I tried to get to a doorway), I know a few people who were without electricity and clean water for a week, or whose houses were damaged beyond repair then had to spend years fighting insurance companies to get what they were due.
I still live in the city, and it's pretty much unrecognisable as to how it was before. Basically every major building in the central city had to either be torn down or significantly renovated to repair it. Basically every brick building built before the 1950s was damaged beyond repair. Huge chunks of residential land in the east of the city was so badly damaged that there is no way it could be safely built on again - the government brought all the houses, tore them down and fenced the area off.
Hey. So was I. I don't live there anymore though.
I didn't know Chrischurch also had earthquake in 2011...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christchurch_earthquake_(disambiguation)
One in 2010 that did a bunch of damage but only killed 2 people, but then triggered a significant aftershock in February 2011 that was much more destructive - partly because it was shallower and closer to the city, but also because lots of buildings had been damaged but not fully repaired.
7.1 in 2010 6.2 in 2011
Interesting tidbit: The 2011 earthquake had a lower magnitude however it had 3x the wave frequency than the 2010 which made it feel much more violent.
The first one was west of Christchurch, the second was south. Different direction of the waves brought many of the already weakened buildings down.
Where I was staying was on the hill of the epicenter of the second earthquake. Couldn't stay from fear a boulder would roll through the house during an aftershock. I remember after every aftershock running outside to make sure nothing was coming our way.
The 2011 earthquake was not long before the Japan earthquake.
I flew into Christchurch the night before the 2011 earthquake, couldn't do anything from all the damage. Flew to Indonesia. In Indonesia woke up to the rumble of a 6+ mag earthquake off the coast of Bali and ran out of the house...
That's when Japan was already having 7+ magnitude earthquakes. The next day was the 9 magnitude earthquake in Japan.
Incredible experience.
Being on the hill must have been rough. Have a friend who moved to the city a few years ago and was super excited to find a bit of bare land up on the hill with a great view into the estuary to build a house on - explained why it was bare, didn't seem to deter him.
It's interesting how the geography affected things - another friend had a batch in Akaroa on the other side of the peninsula that barely felt the quakes - theory being the peninsula is a dead volcano, so it's mostly really spongy basalt that effectively acted as a dampener and absorbed most of the energy