1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:03,760
Speaker 1: I can't quite believe it's been fifteen years since the

2
00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:06,760
Speaker 1: christ Church earthquake. It was the twenty second of Feb

3
00:00:07,040 --> 00:00:10,719
Speaker 1: twenty eleven, at twelve fifty one pm that the magnitude

4
00:00:10,760 --> 00:00:14,240
Speaker 1: six point three earthquake rocked the city and changed the

5
00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:17,279
Speaker 1: face of it in many respects forever. I was right

6
00:00:17,320 --> 00:00:20,280
Speaker 1: in the center of things at cpiit or Udder as

7
00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:23,640
Speaker 1: it's now known, on the Dress Street, and was standing

8
00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:27,000
Speaker 1: outside when it struck. I remember looking up at the great, big,

9
00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:30,920
Speaker 1: tall nursing building as it swayed from side to side, thinking, crikey,

10
00:00:30,960 --> 00:00:32,959
Speaker 1: I'm glad I'm not up the top of that. It

11
00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:37,240
Speaker 1: was just surreal. Somebody who felt it here in Ashburton.

12
00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:40,000
Speaker 1: He was running the place at the time, our former mayor,

13
00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:41,040
Speaker 1: Angus Mackay.

14
00:00:41,159 --> 00:00:44,360
Speaker 2: There was no one there. It was the airy ceiling.

15
00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:49,360
Speaker 2: If you can understand of Ashburton being absolutely the center,

16
00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:54,040
Speaker 2: East Street being absolutely deserted of people. I don't think

17
00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:56,680
Speaker 2: there was a shop open, and it wasn't until about

18
00:00:58,160 --> 00:01:01,800
Speaker 2: five o'clock those people that you're talking about trying to

19
00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:06,400
Speaker 2: get out of christ Church actually started to come through

20
00:01:06,440 --> 00:01:09,720
Speaker 2: Ashburton and all of a sudden there was massive traffic

21
00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:13,319
Speaker 2: built up, people looking for accommodation and they just they

22
00:01:13,440 --> 00:01:15,680
Speaker 2: just traveled until they could find a bed for the night.

23
00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:20,480
Speaker 2: It was actually quite surreal feeling for the people, the

24
00:01:20,560 --> 00:01:26,920
Speaker 2: devastation of not being able to contact friends and relatives would.

25
00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:30,039
Speaker 1: Have gone on. In regard to the impact on the

26
00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:34,839
Speaker 1: Ashburton districts, do you remember do we suffer power outages?

27
00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:36,240
Speaker 1: Do we lose utilities?

28
00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:42,160
Speaker 2: I cannot remember losing any power or any water or

29
00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:46,199
Speaker 2: sewage disconnections. But what we didn't know was that there

30
00:01:46,319 --> 00:01:49,280
Speaker 2: was a lot of buildings had been damaged to an extent,

31
00:01:49,840 --> 00:01:53,560
Speaker 2: and a classic example was that was the Ashburton Library.

32
00:01:54,160 --> 00:01:59,440
Speaker 2: Within about six months there appeared wooden uprights on the

33
00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:02,040
Speaker 2: outside of the library where they were actually bolted through

34
00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:06,000
Speaker 2: the inside to hold the bricks together, to hold the

35
00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:10,560
Speaker 2: library together. And that's why it become necessary at that

36
00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:12,320
Speaker 2: stage to build a new library.

37
00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:14,640
Speaker 1: She won't tempted at the time to also take those

38
00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:17,640
Speaker 1: down and put them on the Ashburton riverbridge. This might

39
00:02:17,680 --> 00:02:21,240
Speaker 1: be a ticket to get a new one quickly. So

40
00:02:21,560 --> 00:02:24,280
Speaker 1: what sort of stories, Angus, were you hearing of the

41
00:02:24,280 --> 00:02:27,320
Speaker 1: mid Canbury locals. You know, obviously assessing their situation and

42
00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:29,880
Speaker 1: going look, we're okay, we're in a position to help.

43
00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:31,480
Speaker 1: Will be sending up the road.

44
00:02:31,919 --> 00:02:36,280
Speaker 2: I heard of one that was smoking the cows, just

45
00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:41,120
Speaker 2: starting to milk the cows that day and they felt

46
00:02:41,120 --> 00:02:43,440
Speaker 2: the earthquake and they thought, oh, I better get to

47
00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:45,920
Speaker 2: christ Church and help. So he left the staff in

48
00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:50,200
Speaker 2: charge and he went to christ Church to help when

49
00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:52,720
Speaker 2: he was there for many days. And then, of course

50
00:02:52,720 --> 00:03:00,480
Speaker 2: it's the famous person from Mayfield, Sam Johnson, who wasversity

51
00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:04,680
Speaker 2: in christ Church at the time, set up the student army,

52
00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:08,200
Speaker 2: and then there were other people that went up as

53
00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:11,359
Speaker 2: part of the There was an oldies army went up,

54
00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:15,160
Speaker 2: there was an army that went up to feed people

55
00:03:15,639 --> 00:03:18,359
Speaker 2: the next day. There was a lot of that went

56
00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:21,200
Speaker 2: on from the people of Ashburton. In fact, the people

57
00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:25,200
Speaker 2: of Ashburton were most generous and Ashburton has always been

58
00:03:25,200 --> 00:03:28,440
Speaker 2: full of community spirit looking to help.

59
00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:31,399
Speaker 1: Has it changed your personal approach to anything? At any

60
00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:35,280
Speaker 1: time I walk into a building now it may be subconscious,

61
00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:38,400
Speaker 1: but I'm looking around thinking if I had to, can

62
00:03:38,440 --> 00:03:39,480
Speaker 1: I get out of here quickly?

63
00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:43,320
Speaker 2: No, it never changed me as far as that is concerned.

64
00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:49,560
Speaker 2: But it did change, did verify what I believed or

65
00:03:49,600 --> 00:03:53,360
Speaker 2: already knew that Ashburton just don't know how well or

66
00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:56,080
Speaker 2: if they are, and also they don't know what great

67
00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:58,360
Speaker 2: people they are when it comes to an emergency for

68
00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:01,280
Speaker 2: their neighbors. I always knew it was there, but didn't

69
00:04:01,320 --> 00:04:04,120
Speaker 2: notice the extent that it would be there. And it

70
00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:05,120
Speaker 2: was one hundred percent