Suburbs in the east of Christchurch were very badly affected again after Monday’s two earthquakes. Many houses lost underground services like water, power and sewerage and still today about 50,000 people have no water and cannot use their toilets. Some people have had to use a chemical toilet or a portable toilet in the street (a “portaloo”) for the last 9 months. Most people now have power back on but 100 houses are still waiting for power. Temperatures at the moment are close to zero degrees at night and 10 degrees during the day. To add to this miserable situation, these are the same people that have more silt from liquefaction around their homes and in their street. Some volunteers are now offering to help clear the silt but students are in the middle of exams so they cannot help as they did in February.
Schools in the east are also affected. Today, 59 schools were still closed after Monday’s earthquakes. By next Monday they should all be open again.
Hill suburbs, especially Sumner, Redcliffs, Mt Pleasant and Lyttelton, which were close to the centre of the earthquakes, are also in trouble. Huge rocks came down in many places, closing roads and damaging buildings but fortunately no one was killed. One geologist who was measuring cracks on the edge of a cliff on Monday afternoon, was lucky to escape with his life. The cliff where he was standing slipped down into the sea. He managed to run to safety just in time.
Meanwhile, people in these areas are all waiting for the land report. This will give information about which areas cannot be rebuilt on. This report is expected soon.
Listen to March 1st 2011 to hear more about liquefaction, the student volunteer “army” and the “farmy army”.
Vocabulary
Portaloo is made up of two words: portable and loo. A loo is British English for toilet.
Questions
Can a city continue to provide underground services and roads to areas where these have been badly damaged and repaired three times because of liquefaction?
If the land report recommends that some areas should have no houses on them, what can the government do for the home owners?