Christchurch aftershocks: Hard-hit east residents three times unlucky

Water mains burst in Ferry Rd near Sumner after yesterday's two major aftershocks and many smaller jolts. Photo / Getty Images

Disheartened eastern suburbs householders face the prospect of another huge cleanup after spending days shovelling silt off their properties in February.

Avondale resident and well-known sportswriter Bob Schumacher, who lives in the heart of the eastern suburbs that were devastated in February, spent four days digging out his section after the February quake.

Now he has to do it all again after liquefaction and burst pipes - which the council had just been starting to repair - ruined his Scoular Place property again.

He and his neighbours met after yesterday's quakes and they all wanted to leave, he said.

The sludge, which was up over his patio, was deeper than last time, he said.

"It's so depressing. Last time I shovelled for four days non-stop to clear it, and the whole neighbourhood got together and spent a week cleaning up.

"We'd just got the lawn growing and things looking good, and now it's back to square one."

The whole area would have to be condemned, he said.

Earthquake damage is cruelly arbitrary - after February one side of the street was without power, and the other was okay. Yesterday the power loss was reversed.

Other streets in the district are just as bad as Scoular Place.

Mr Schumacher drove home yesterday down Avondale Rd, which was flooded to the base of his car's grille, "and when you hit a pothole, it was up around the bonnet".

The only consolation for him was that he had only a smashed TV and some minor breakages.

Brent Hurst couldn't help but think the worst when the quakes struck yesterday. The 55-year-old Avondale resident, who was shopping at the supermarket when the first quake struck, said he was worried the building would collapse. "It's a bloody scare. In that split second it goes through your mind and that's when you take off," he said.

"I'd just walked into Pak'n Save and was halfway down the aisle. I took off and went for it."

Outside he said shoppers were left shaken and in despair after the quake.

"People were pretty upset."

But little did Mr Hurst know there was another, larger quake to come.

He was at home hanging out his washing as the second quake hit.

"It shook me about. I thought I was going to fall.

"I was astounded, absolutely astounded," he said.

"I thought the house was going to come down. It was just swaying with the ground because it's so soft here because of all the liquefaction."

His Ardrossan St property, in Avondale, was hard hit in all three quakes.

It had been assessed as a "total loss" and would have to be rebuilt - it's just unclear yet where.

"We've been three times lucky.
It can't get much worse, I suppose. It's still standing. You can't do much about it," he said.

"The garage is flooded with water, muck and god knows what else. I just closed the door and left the stuff floating around."

His neighbours - what's left of them - are in the same boat.

"Our street at the moment it's flooded right across the road.

"The people across the road have got it even worse than I do. They've really copped it bad."

But despite the street being hit three times Mr Hurst said he wouldn't hesitate to rebuild there.

"It's a great street with great neighbours."

All he is waiting for is the land information report, something Mr Hurst said would assure a number of eastern residents who were in limbo, not knowing if they could rebuild in the area or not.

To compound residents' worries, the city council warned last night that low-lying eastern areas might be at risk of flooding at high tide at 2.25am because temporary stopbanks along the Avon River had been damaged.

Crews were working against time to fix them, but not confident the work could be completed by high tide.

As well as the eastern suburbs, there has been substantial liquefaction and road damage in Shirley and St Albans.