Weekly Photo Challenge: Wrong

What happens to a building with a wall made of bricks in a 6.3 shallow earthquake

Wrong. As in, there’s something wrong here.

Yes there is a lot of wrong in my city since the first earthquake struck on 4th Sept 2010 and the fatal one on Feb 22 2010 were nearly 200 people lost their lives, crushed in falling buildings and debris.

A main arterial road, that fell away into the river that it curved around. They are still working on repairing it nearly a year later.

The central business area is still closed off, still the Red Zone, but now some of the more dangerous buildings have been demolished, they are running bus tours through it.

Another view of the broken road, that drop is a good 4 or 5 feet down

The photo below is of Manchester street, one of the main roads through the CBD, closed off after the first Sept earthquake.  It had only been open for a few weeks before the Feb 22 quake hit.

Manchester St closed for several blocks

Due to a lot of these buildings being old and paid for, they offered cheap rent to a lot of small businesses.  Many of those businesses have struggled, closed or never reopened since due to the overwhelming shortage of business premises, and the sudden hike in prices.

Peaches and Cream

Some business like the Peaches and Cream Adult shop, always manage to find a way to reopen

We Will Try To Save This House

The above image was taken in April last year.  The house is abandoned, the roof has fallen in, the walls are buckling and the weeds are nearly waist high.  I don’t know if they can save it now.

Full view of the house

It has been dubbed “The New Normal” and its all wrong, but it is what we have to work with, and the only way is forward, even if the momentum may appear to be snails pace for too many.

Wrong.

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