A photograph of signs on the windows of the Christchurch Art Gallery. The art gallery was used as the temporary Civil Defence headquarters after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. The signs read, "Today is Thursday 3 March 2011" and "Wash your hands!". In the background, emergency management personnel and a New Zealand Fire Service truck can be seen.
A story submitted by Anonymous to the QuakeStories website.
Responsibility for dealing with the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake could pass from Civil Defence to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority within a matter of days.
A photograph of a make-shift toilet in the Christchurch Art Gallery. A sign behind it reads, "Portaloos Department. We know that 80,000 people need loos. We have 900-1800 available or coming, We don't need to be told people need loos. Thank you. We're number one with your number twos!". Signs below this read, "Toilet Occupied", "Toilet Vacant" and, "In Tray". The Art Gallery was used as the temporary headquarters for Civil Defence after the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
A video of an interview with Mayor Bob Parker, recorded at the Civil Defence Headquarters in the Christchurch Art Gallery on the evening of the 22 February 2011. Parker talks about the fatalities and damage caused by the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
A photograph of emergency management personnel working in the Christchurch Art Gallery.
A photograph of emergency management personnel working in the Christchurch Art Gallery.
University of Canterbury staff members are escorted by Civil Defence members in order to retrieve essential items from their offices. The photographer comments, "E-learning team collect their stuff".
The reality of just how many historic buildings will be lost to the Christchurch earthquake is now becoming apparent with Civil Defence adding another 123 buildings to the demolition list.
A video about the work which is being conducted in the Christchurch Red Zone in the weeks after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. Members of the New Zealand Army and Civil Defence are working to secure business premises by boarding up broken windows and doors. The video also includes footage of the damage to the Fisher's Building, the Press Building, Ballies Bar, and ChristChurch Cathedral, and many buildings on High Street.
A photograph of the photocopy template for the Christchurch City Council's yellow sticker. The sticker was used by the Civil Defence after the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes to indicate that a building had been inspected and that structural damage or other safety hazards had been found. The sticker states that there should be no entry to the building, 'except on essential business'. It also states that 'earthquake aftershocks present danger' and that people who enter must do so at their own risk.
A mobile toilet unit set up on Gloucester Street, outside the Christchurch Art Gallery. The art gallery was used as the temporary Civil Defence headquarters after the 22 February 2011 earthquakes.
University of Canterbury staff members are escorted by Civil Defence members in order to retrieve essential items from their offices. The photographer comments, "ICT network admins, Craig Miller and Aaron Eivers".
University of Canterbury staff members are escorted by Civil Defence members in order to retrieve essential items from their offices. The photographer comments, "E-learning team vacate their floor. (Blurry, sorry.)
A photograph of emergency management personnel in the foyer of the Christchurch Art Gallery.
Heart-shaped notes on the fence of Burwood Primary School. The notes express appreciation for the efforts of the civil defence, fire service, volunteers and council workers from the students of Burwood Primary.
Heart-shaped notes on the fence of Burwood Primary School. The notes express appreciation for the efforts of the civil defence, fire service, volunteers and council workers from the students of Burwood Primary.
Heart-shaped notes on the fence of Burwood Primary School. The notes express appreciation for the efforts of the civil defence, fire service, volunteers and council workers from the students of Burwood Primary.
The Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre's "Community Earthquake Update" bulletin, published on Friday 1 July 2011.
University of Canterbury ICT staff members prepare to be escorted to buildings by Civil Defence members in order to retrieve computers from offices. The photographer comments, "ICT staff head out to retrieve computers from buildings".
A photograph of emergency management personnel in the foyer of the Christchurch Art Gallery. A cherry picker has been placed inside the building.
University of Canterbury staff members prepare to be escorted to their buildings by Civil Defence members in order to retrieve essential items from their offices. The photographer comments, "Susan Tull (E-learning), Leigh Davidson (MBA administrator), Bob Reed (Economics)".
The Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre's "Community Earthquake Update" bulletin, published on Friday 24 June 2011.
A photograph of signs on a wall in the Christchurch Art Gallery. The signs read, "Final media trip to the CTV building, 15:00 hours, media opportunity with National Controller and rescue services. This is the last scheduled media hour into the red zone", "Media Briefings, Tuesday 8 March: 10:30 hours, Wednesday 9 March: 15:00 hours, in auditorium" and "Please switch off your cell phones before entering media briefings. Thank you". There is also a diagram of the first and ground floor of the art gallery. The Christchurch Art Gallery served as the temporary Civil Defence headquarters after the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
The "Lyttelton Review" newsletter for 12 December 2011, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
An entry from Ruth Gardner's blog for 4 March 2011 entitled, "Day 11, 4pm - inside the Christchurch cordon".
The Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre's "Community Earthquake Update" bulletin, published on Friday 26 August 2011.
The Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre's "Community Earthquake Update" bulletin, published on Friday 15 July 2011.
The extent of liquefaction in the eastern suburbs of Christchurch (Aranui, Bexley, Avonside, Avonhead and Dallington) from the February 22 2011 Earthquake resulted in extensive damage to in-ground waste water pipe systems. This caused a huge demand for portable toilets (or port-a-loos) and companies were importing them from outside Canterbury and in some instances from Australia. However, because they were deemed “assets of importance” under legislation, their allocation had to be coordinated by Civil Defence and Emergency Management (CDEM). Consequently, companies supplying them had to ignore requests from residents, businesses and rest homes; and commitments to large events outside of the city such as the Hamilton 400 V8 Supercars and the Pasifika Festival in Auckland were impacted. Frustrations started to show as neighbourhoods questioned the equity of the port-a-loos distribution. The Prime Minister was reported as reassuring citizens in the eastern suburbs in the first week of March that1 “a report about the distribution of port-a-loos and chemical toilets shows allocation has been fair. Key said he has asked Civil Defence about the distribution process and where the toilets been sent. He said there aren’t enough for the scale of the event but that is quickly being rectified and the need for toilets is being reassessed all the time.” Nonetheless, there still remained a deep sense of frustration and exclusion over the equity of the port-a-loos distribution. This study took the simple approach of mapping where those port-a-loos were on 11-12 March for several areas in the eastern suburbs and this suggested that their distribution was not equitable and was not well done. It reviews the predictive tools available for estimating damage to waste water pipes and asks the question could this situation have been better planned so that pot-a-loo locations could have been better prioritised? And finally it reviews the integral roles of communication and monitoring as part of disaster management strategy. The impression from this study is that other New Zealand urban centres could or would also be at risk and that work is need to developed more rational management approaches for disaster planning.
A banner on the fence of Burwood Primary School expressing the student's appreciation for the efforts of the civil defence, fire service, volunteers and council workers with a banner on their school fence. On each heart-shape note is a personal message from the students.