Thursday 17 March 2011. The problems in Christchurch are of course dwarfed by the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear reactor situation in Japan. It's hard not to sound cliched but we really do feel for the people caught up in this nightmare.
For my family and I here in Christchurch, life goes on and this business continues. We'll be posting a new listing tonight, and more over the next few weeks. Thank you to our friends and customers who enquired after us.
Tuesday 1 March 2011. Now seven days after the earthquake. Water back on yesterday at our house. Death toll currently 154 and police say it is likely to rise to 240. It will be a long time before normality returns, but people are mostly either coping or have left the city. Aftershocks becoming more infrequent. Most of our glass is stored in Sweden and generally shipped to customers in the Northern Hemisphere. However, we have about 20 listings of glass which is stored in New Zealand, in our house. Most of this survived the quake, but I haven't had a chance to check for minor scratches and the like, so I have marked all but one "Not for sale". The exception is a particularly fine sculpture which was stored so that there was no chance of damage.
If you are on Facebook, have a look at photos of the day of the earthquake by a gentleman who was caught up in it in the centre of the city -Christchurch Earthquake by Brian
Friday 25 Feb 2011. New earthquake in Christchurch on 22 Feb - now three days later and we're all ok in my immediate family. Come back to our site sometime soon and I'll give more information. 103 dead and 227 missing. Sewage system badly affected. No water in taps. Water delivered by tankers to local schools yesterday. We now have about 500-600 litres on hand (roughly 150 gallons). Power on for 75% of the city. Rubbish collection started again today. Most of the dead too crushed to identify immediately. Needs dental records and DNA. Love to all our friends and family and customers. Christchurch doesn't feel so lucky anymore.
4 Sept 2010 - Earthquake news from Christchurch
Most of our glass is stored in Sweden but Peter and Viv Hattaway live in Christchurch, New Zealand, a city of about 400,000 people. On 4 September 2010, a Saturday morning, at 4.30am, Christchurch was shaken by an earthquake of 7.1 on the Richter scale. This was slightly stronger than the 7.0 earthquake that killed 230,000 people in Haiti in January 2010. However, amazingly, in Christchurch there were no deaths. Property damage is estimated to be more than US$3 billion. Aftershocks continue, some up to 4 or 5 on the Richter scale, but we hope we are over the worst.
Of around 100 pieces of glass in our home (mostly in our private collection, but a few for sale) here is the one piece that broke. A light piece, it fell over on a shelf and broke, then fell onto the floor. Two other pieces fell off the same shelving unit and landed on books and papers which had also fallen, or onto carpet. They didn't break, and nor did another 23 pieces which stayed on those shelves. Elsewhere in the house, a couple of pieces fell over but suffered no damage. Two of the half dozen pottery ornaments we own fell off shelves and broke.
How did we get off so lightly? Much of our glass is heavy lead crystal from Scandinavia. It's not that easy to shake off a shelf or to break. Also, our house is on volcanic rock and houses in our area suffered less than others in Christchurch.
Most of Christchurch is on the Canterbury Plains. These were formed by 3 million years worth of gravel washing down off the Southern Alps to the west, into the Pacific ocean. Houses on sand or silt shook more than ours, it seems. Our house is 200 metres above sea level on the side of the Port Hills, which were formed by two long-extinct volcanoes.
But all of Christchurch has come through this remarkably well. We are a low rise city; our building standards are expected to cope with earthquakes and are generally well enforced. We have no underground gas pipes so there were few fires following the quake. The winter has been very wet but at the time of the quake the weather was kind to us, and has remained so for at least the next few days. There are lots of brick house chimneys and facades on older commercial buildings which have fallen down, but at 4.30am, few people were in older, taller buildings in the CBD, or on the streets to be injured by falling debris.
On the Monday following the quake, as I write this, the CBD is cordoned off as buildings are checked for structural damage, there have been a few arrests of people attempting to loot damaged buildings (but relatively few), the electricity is back on for all but a few people, and water mains are shut off on only about 60 streets. The city council is working to fix about 30 serious sewage pipe leaks (so drinking water must be boiled), and 200 people slept in emergency shelters, though many more are staying with family and friends. An early estimate suggested 20% of homes were uninhabitable. Schools will be shut until Wednesday for safety checks but hospitals have been open, and coping all through the crisis.
Christchurch calls itself the garden city. We should change our motto and start calling ourselves the lucky city. To have an earthquake of this magnitude with no deaths makes us unbelievably lucky
