learningforsustainability.net2010 - and now 2011 -Canterbury earthquake recovery links
Whichever way you look at them, it is not easy recovering from a disaster. People get affected in different ways - physically, emotionally and financially. At 4:35 last week (4 September 2010) we were woken by the magnitude 7.1 Canterbury earthquake striking around Christchurch the South Island of New Zealand. Luckily, for a range of reasons (the time of day, good building codes, type of quake, etc.) there were minimal injuries. But these things pan out slowly .... Five days on and we have had 11 aftershocks of magnitude 5-6, 71 between magnitude 4-5, and 247 between magnitudes 3-4 ... meaning less sleep and more damage in many cases. Even in the midst of this people are out cleaning up, coping and helping out ... really amazing stuff. One way some are helping is in using the Internet to share information, so here are some links to useful Canterbury quake online resources ...The official sites
Collectively these sites provide first point of call information for all government services, and official updates from different agencies. You will find links for financial and health assistance. There is new website set up for business assistance. Other links point to help with anxious children and much more.
I've just updated the official site links in this section for the 6.3 Canterbury earthquake - 22 February 2011. Some of the other information lower on the page was put up after the September 2010 quake, and may still be useful.
Official sites for 6.3 Canterbury earthquake - 22 February 2011
- Civil Defense for all information and updates on the initial response to the 6.3 earthquake in cantrebury - 22 February 2011
- canterburyearthquake.govt.nz This is a New Zealand government website developed for the earthquake respoinse and managed and maintained by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA). The information and tools on this site are provided to support the response to the Canterbury earthquake. The site provides free access to a wide range of resources. It acts as a gateway to central and local government resources, news and services.
- Canterbury earthquake blog Provides links to central and local government agencies and others supporting Canterbury people as they respond to the quake. Seems to provide updates from a wide range of organisations.
- Christchurch City Council and Selwyn District Council These sites provide key first point of call information for their residents. They provide links through to other sites
- Canterbury earthquake welfare centres The Ministry of Social Development has published details of welfare centres for those that need urgent emergency assistance following the Canterbury earthquake.
Maps and things
A number of very cool resources have been created to graphically show what's happened in Canterbury over the past few days
- Geonet - recent quakes the most amazing resource providing base data on all the earthquakes in near real time. Shows the last 30 quakes, where they hit and how big they were. The GeoNet website provides public access to hazards information, including earthquake reports and Volcanic Alert Bulletins. It also allows the retrieval of fundamental data sets, such as GPS Rinex files, earthquake hypocentres and instrument waveform data. These data are made freely available to the research community.
- Timelapse Christchurch Quake Map This aims to present a time-lapse visualisation of the earthquake and its aftershocks, primarily to help those outside the affected area understand what those of us in Canterbury are experiencing. It plots earthquake data from GeoNet on a map using the Google Maps API, with the size of the circle denoting the magnitude (the higher the magnitude, the larger the circle) and the colour showing the focal depth (see the legend below the map).
- Earthquake events map A Google Map created by nzherald staff that traces the big events of the story from the epicentre outwards, including the damage to all the historic buildings and how welfare services have swung into action.
- Where the land shook A Google Map created by nzherald staff that shows where the land shook, from the main earthquake on Saturday, and all the subsequent aftershocks, sorted by day.
- Incident map This Map of the Canterbury earthquake by Eagle Technology Group includes quake information, priority sites and structure information.
Dealing with stressful times
After a traumatic event like an earthquake, it�s normal for people to feel stressed and anxious. Most people are, in any case, feeling tired after living with hundreds of aftershocks during the past few days. The Christchurch City Council has put out a short pamplet Coping with a disaster for people caught in the Canterbury quake events. A number of more in-depth resources can be accessed from other sites.
- Christchurch Earthquake - Coping with stress A series of handouts published by the Ministry of Health to help you, your family and community to understand common emotional reactions to the earthquake, learn positive ways of coping, and identify when to get extra help that will enable you to cope better.
- A Guide for Emergency Response Workers and their Managers Too often, the stress experienced by emergency responders is addressed as an afterthought. This handout published by the Ministry of Health provides some ideas about organisational and individual approaches for stress prevention and management.
- Psychosocial support after the Canterbury quake � launch of advice blog This site by Dr Sarb Johal describes what you might feel and experience after going through the quake, and what you can do to help yourself and others. Dr Johal invites people to check in regularly for bite-sized advice and tips to help you recognise some of the new and unsettling thoughts, feelings and behaviours that you and others around you might be seeing or going through, and how to help yourself and others.
Accomodation, donations, etc.
- Earthquake Accommodation This site by Room4Rent is for people who may have a spare house or would like to host victims of the Christchurch Earthquake in their home. Provides a service where people can leave information about accommodation that they can offer.
- Canterbury Earthquake Appeal You can donate on-line directly through the New Zealand Red Cross to help those affected by the Canterbury earthquake.
If you know of other useful resource sited for those within the Canterbury earthquake zone please let me know (use contact links below) and I will post links to them here. If you wish to make a comment you can do so through the associated Sparks for change quake posting.
Many of the other sections in this site relate to community and sustainable development and so link as the capacity building site of disaster management. The concept of social resilience is particularly closely linked. The main index on the left points to related topic areas that can support the achievement of these ideas in practice.