Thursday, February 24, 2011

Tribute to Christchurch


22nd February 2011 – New Zealand Darkest Day

It was heart breaking to know another massive 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck again near Christchurch on 22nd February 2011 at 12.51pm. This time it was sad to note Christchurch was not as lucky as in the 4th September 2010 quake when it escaped miraculously without fatality. The death toll reported today was 75 and more than 200 missing and our PM John Key warned the number would continue to climb and that it was the darkest day of New Zealand L

It shattered my heart to watch devastating footages over TV, seeing injured people, smashed cars, damaged roads and collapsed buildings. I was especially taken back by the collapse of the 110 years old Christchurch Cathedral Church, the Christchurch iconic city landmark! I couldn’t believe, I was there 46 days ago happily traveling with my family on our Great Kiwi Road trip. We were there twice; first trip on 6th January and then again on 19th January.

During our first trip we went to Cathedral Square and the square was very busy and lively with tourists, a live band with great music. The weather was superb with clear blue sky and we were cheerfully posing in front of the Cathedral Church, the icon of Christchurch. I still remembered, for me to capture the peak of the whole Cathedral Church Tower; I had to lie flat on the floor. But now just too painful to see the whole spire as if been chopped down and the elegant interiors of the church now became piles of rubble. L

In fact, during our second stay, we did experience two aftershocks; one of which was quite major at 5.1 magnitudes. We were asleep but awakened with a sudden shaking of our bed at 6.am. That was my first earthquake related experience. However, that incident happened in a split second and subsided so fast that it didn’t pose threats at all and we just continued to sleep. Later in the morning, we found out this was the 3,907th aftershock to hit the city since the devastating 7.1 tremor on September 4 2010 and also was one of the biggest aftershocks and the first over magnitude 5.

With this post, I just wish to pay tribute to all Christchurch earthquake victims.  My prayer and thoughts are with all the people of Christchurch.  

Sharing with you the collage I made in remembrance of the Christchurch Cathedral Church.

The history shots to remember 

Cathedral Church - before and after the earthquake



The elegant interios of Cathedral Church - 06/01/2011

 After 22nd February 2011 earthquake


Christchurch Cathedral was heavily damaged in the earthquake 22/02/2011. Photo: Twitter - @tesswoolcock

Extracted from online news



 

7 comments:

  1. thank you so much for sharing this with us. yeah the fatality was bad this time huh! and to think you'd visited there a month back. my tribute to the victims.
    the cathedral church looks magnificent in your photograph. the lovely steeple is demolished totally. do share this in foodbuzz.

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  2. How very sad ... it was a beautiful church. I have friends whose homes were damaged and were hurt by falling debris but fortunately no fatalitites. I feel for those who have lost their friends or families.

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  3. It is really sad what happened to Christchurch specially the people that were affected. Such a beautiful city to be destroyed in a matter of seconds.

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  4. What happened in Christchurch was terrible... my tribute to the victims too. I come from a land where earthquakes are frequent and often devastating (Italy), so I do feel for all New Zealanders!
    I want to thank you for this post... you did a great job, trying to spread the news and getting people to think. Also for this reason, I want to pass on a "One lovely Blog Award" to you. You can retrieve it here: http://www.manusmenu.com/first-event-and-second-award I truly love your blog and the spirit of it! Keep it up Yin!

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  5. What a terrible thing to happen. While I am glad my friends in NZ are fine, my heart goes out to all those affected by the quake.

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  6. Pretty sad indeed until now no more survivors being saved from the quake. The death toll already reached more than 150 now and expected to rise over 200. :-(

    However, so please to see all Kiwi are united in helping out CC people. School initiated Mufti day (also known as Casual Clothes Day) by asking school kids to wear red and black (Canterbury color) and bring $2 for donation. Parents being asked to bring bottles of drink to donate to the CC people who still suffered water supply problems.

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  7. I can't even imagine if it's happening here! Gosh, all those buildings are histories! Gone forever!
    Kristy

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