The large aftershock rattled nerves in Christchurch last night but it was not the destructive earthquake that had been predicted by self-styled quake forecaster Ken Ring.
The Earthquake Commission has more than doubled its estimate of how much it will pay out for Canterbury earthquake claims, from three billion dollars to seven billion dollars.
A structural engineer has denied he rushed the inspection of earthquake repairs to a Christchurch bar so it could re-open in time for New Years Eve.
The Christchurch earthquake was obviously a huge story this year, and for one couple it will always be particularly memorable. Christchurch lawyer Katherine Ewer and her husband David got married that day.
Public bus tours of Christchurch's red zone will start off with a warning that the passengers could be trapped by an earthquake and may not make it out alive.
Business owners have told the Christchurch City Council they are haemorrhaging thousands of dollars a week, while it decides whether or not to demolish their buildings following last month's earthquake.
An earthquake engineer says designing buildings to resist earthquakes is as much an art as it is a science and you can never make a structure completely quake-proof.
Two separate chances to inspect the Canterbury Television building were missed before the February earthquake saw it pancake to the ground last year, killing 115 people.
For the first time the man whose firm designed the CTV building has apologised to the families of the 115 people killed when it collapsed in the Christchurch earthquake.
A Christchurch couple has been told they can't use a driveway that no longer leads to any houses because the Earthquake Recovery Authority may need access to it.
Mindful Mover was born after the Christchurch earthquake, the anxiety and stress caused by the continuous rattling. From there it's grown to help young people dealing with bullying, troubles at home, and learning difficulties.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "St John's Church in Hororata undergoes repairs to its tower after it was damaged in the September earthquake".
Damage to the roof tiles of a house. A section of the roof has been covered by plastic sheeting to protect it from rain, and the house is on a lean.
A damaged bridge in Lake Terrace Road in Burwood. The bridge has warped, and the pathway leading to it is badly cracked.
Steel bracing on the Moorhouse Avenue overpass. The photographer comments, "Standing underneath I did hear a clump as if a part of the road overhead was pivoting as a car passed over it".
Twisted reinforcing rods tangled in a pile of rubble. The photographer comments, "It is a horrible sight when a transformer runs out of electricity. Anyone got any jumper cables?".
Damage to the roof tiles of a house. A section of the roof has been covered by plastic sheeting to protect it from rain, and the house is on a lean.
Detail of the fence around the 'Ark of Hope' by Wongi Wilson in Sydenham Square, corner of Brougham and Colombo Streets. On it is a poem by John O'Donohue.
View down Tuam Street. On the left is the building housing the Real Groovy music shop, which relocated there after the September earthquake. Beside it is the former Odeon Theatre.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "St John's Church in Hororata undergoes repairs to its tower after it was damaged in the September earthquake".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "St John's Church in Hororata undergoes repairs to its tower after it was damaged in the September earthquake".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "St John's Church in Hororata undergoes repairs to its tower after it was damaged in the September earthquake".
A store window that has been spray painted after it was cleared by a USAR team. This system was used following the February earthquake to mark buildings that have been checked.
Spray painted codes outside a block of apartments after it was cleared by a USAR team. This system was used following the February earthquake to mark buildings that have been checked.
Marking Time in Sydenham In 1912, the impressive Sydenham Post Office stood as a sentinel on the busy corner of Colombo and Brougham Streets. It was a huge post office which served a large communit…
It is the year 1880 and Wilhelmina Arnst and John Christian Aschen have just married in the Deutsche Kirche, on the corner of Worcester and Montreal Streets. They stand outside on the street with t…
This apartment building was across the street from our old flat. Now it's an empty lot.
Strange sign when the building it refers to is no longer there. Earthquake damage.
INTRODUCTION: After the 2011 Canterbury earthquake, the provision of school social work was extended into a larger number of schools in the greater Christchurch region to support discussions of their practice priorities and responses in post-earthquake schools. FINDINGS: Two main interpretations of need are reflected in the school social workers’ accounts of their work with children and families. Firstly, hardship-focused need, which represented children as adversely influenced by their home circumstances; the interventions were primarily with parents. These families were mainly from schools in low socioeconomic areas. Secondly, anxiety-based need, a newer practice response, which emphasised children who were considered particularly susceptible to the impacts of the disaster event. This article considers how these practitioners conceptualised and responded to the needs of the children and their families in this context. METHOD: A qualitative study examining recovery policy and school social work practice following the earthquakes including 12 semi-structured interviews with school social workers. This article provides a Foucauldian analysis of the social worker participants’ perspectives on emotional and psychological issues for children, particularly those from middle-class families; the main interventions were direct therapeutic work with children themselves. Embedded within these practice accounts are moments in which the social workers contested the predominant, individualising conceptualisations of need to enable more open-ended, negotiable, interconnected relationships in post-earthquake schools. IMPLICATIONS: In the aftermath of disasters, school social workers can reflect on their preferred practice responses and institutional influences in schools to offer children and families opportunities to reject the prevalent norms of risk and vulnerability.
This thesis investigates the relationship between the apocalyptic narrative and the postmodern novel. It explores and builds on Patricia Waugh‟s hypothesis in Practising Postmodernism: Reading Modernism (1992) which suggests that that the postmodern is characterised by an apocalyptic sense of crisis, and argues that there is in fact a strong relationship between the apocalyptic and the postmodern. It does so through an exploration of apocalyptic narratives and themes in five postmodern novels. It also draws on additional supporting material which includes literary and cultural theory and criticism, as well as historical theory. In using the novel as a medium through which to explore apocalyptic narratives, this thesis both assumes and affirms the novel‟s importance as a cultural artefact which reflects the concerns of the age in which it is written. I suggest that each of the novels discussed in this thesis demonstrates the close relationship between the apocalyptic and the postmodern through society‟s concern over the direction of history, the validity of meta-narratives, and other cultural phenomenon, such as war, the development of nuclear weaponry, and terrorism. Although the scope of this thesis is largely confined to the historical-cultural epoch known as postmodernity, it also draws on literature and cultural criticism from earlier periods so as to provide a more comprehensive framework for investigating apocalyptic ideas and their importance inside the postmodern novel. A number of modernist writers are therefore referred to or quoted throughout this thesis, as are other important thinkers from preceding periods whose ideas are especially pertinent. The present thesis was researched and written between March 2010 and August 2011 and is dedicated to all of those people who lost their lives in the apocalyptic events of the February 22nd Christchurch earthquake.