How Life Changes in a Second

Although we weren’t downtown when the Christchurch earthquake hit, (we were there the day before) we are still recovering from the experience of being in our home 1km from the epicenter, and about 20 min from Christchurch. We’ve since relocated to the Wanaka/Queenstown area.

Dust rises as the Quake hits Christchurch

We hadn’t been in the Christchurch area more than a week or two. We had just unpacked after having arrived from the U.S. via a short trip to Australia for Christmas. But we were getting to know the city. We had gotten our library and metro cards. Amanda had signed up for art classes in Lyttelton.

I thought I’d share this post, and…. Here is an interactive look of before and after satellite images of the hardest hit areas of this wonderful town. The Queenstown District Council had, at last count, recorded about 75,000 people having left Christchurch and come into the their region as either temporary or permanent residents.

"Christchurch Before and After" Scroll/Slider

Tags: Amanda Richards, before and after satellite, Christchurch Earthquake, Dust Earthquake, Mountain Spirit, Randy Richards

This entry was posted on 04/03/2011 at 09:14 and is filed under MSI News, New Zealand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “How Life Changes in a Second”

Susan in NH Says:
04/03/2011 at 09:24 | Reply
Wow, so glad you are all okay.
- mtnspirit Says:
  04/03/2011 at 09:29 | Reply
  Hey Sue,
  Yep, It’s been quite an experience.
  Thanks for your thoughts!
  R
Wendy Says:
07/03/2011 at 09:21 | Reply
How scary! Glad that you and Amanda were together when the shaking began. We’re VERY glad that you are both OK.
- mtnspirit Says:
  08/03/2011 at 06:06 | Reply
  Thanks Wendy! We should have a new home tomorrow if all goes well.
JezBod Says:
03/08/2012 at 19:34 | Reply
I was there as well, my mother and I landed 2 1/2 hours before and were just getting ready to go shopping for provisions when it struck. We had a hire car full of fuel and somewhere else to go (a sister near Dunedin) so were very lucky. We returned in 2012 for the memorial service.
- mtnspirit Says:
  04/08/2012 at 13:17 | Reply
  Thanks for the comment…yeah, that really was bad for all involved, and still continues to be a huge dilemma for the residents of CHCH.
  I’m glad you were OK. How was the memorial service? We missed that.
  R Richards