So last night my fair city had ANOTHER aftershock... it was only a richter scale 4.7 but it felt pretty jolty, enough to give me a fright, but luckily not big enough to make anything fall over. It did feel strong enough that for a couple of seconds I thought we were in for another biggie - we've had 4 earthquakes over 6 in the last 2 years here in Christchurch and they really have changed things in this city. For myself... I spent 2 weeks without running water or power back in February 2011, that one closed down our central city - parts of the CBD are still cordoned off and will never be the same again. The Christchurch I grew up with is not the Christchurch my kids will grow to see. I teach at a school that was then in the central city and that building is still inside the CBD red zone, we've been relocated to the suburbs, a move that had a real impact on us. Probably that's been the biggest change for me, how it's affected my school - also, it was that quake that destroyed my partner's house and led to him moving in with me... and that pattern of events led to the birth of our son, so it really was pretty life altering in many respects.
Last week also marked our 11 000th aftershock! That's a whole lot of shaking going on. I have many pictures following the big quakes, but they are all on a computer I currently do not have access to - but last night's shake up made me wonder... does anyone here have images of natural forces at work, or of the aftermath? I'd love to see them if you do!
@mikehammed That's just crazy... I hope no one was hurt. And those clouds look so serene above that devastation!
@httpgeffed Woah, that's a great image! Reminds me of my drive home on Feb 22, thinking of it always makes me sing Nick Cave's line "we call these streets rivers, we call these rivers streets" as at one street in particular the water from liquefaction came up over the bonnet of my car. And no camera for that drive home, damnit!
@jsw0109 That's a beautiful and quite surreal shot. Loving the reflections and the colours are stunning! I wish I'd been 365ing when we had our big shake-ups looking at these.
@jsw0109 They were terrifying times - I can only speak of my own experiences of course - but there was beauty to be had... one of the stand out things for me was how my neighbourhood, which was badly affected, really came together. I didn't really know my neighbours until then, but I can thank them for so much over that time, it sounds a bit twee but how we came together to support and look after each other really was beautiful. And it sort of went on and on... we are still feeling it now, and you just can't focus on the stuff that was terrifying and awful for too long, or you couldn't live here any more. I don't ever mean to make light of the loss and hardship that comes from such an event, but while being terrifying and chaotic, my own experiences really did have some beautiful moments, although some of them are definitely tinged with sadness. Some very powerful images certainly came from those times, pictures that moved me to tears and that made me grin.
Wendy took some amazing photos of the fires in Colorado last summer that narrowly missed her house. @exposure4u I hope she doesn't mind me sharing them here...
and then a month later...
10 years ago on Friday, Canberra (Australia) witnessed its worse bush fire destroying over 500 homes in the suburbs and this is all that is left of the Oddies telescope at Mt Stromlo Observatory (built in 1911).
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Fargo ND in the spring, we have had a few floods in the past couple of years.
@httpgeffed Woah, that's a great image! Reminds me of my drive home on Feb 22, thinking of it always makes me sing Nick Cave's line "we call these streets rivers, we call these rivers streets" as at one street in particular the water from liquefaction came up over the bonnet of my car. And no camera for that drive home, damnit!
and then a month later...
@hasselhotch - I love the swan shot. How beautifully surreal it looks!
The second a tree downed by Hurricane Sandy- Oct. 2012
And lastly the sky before and after Hurricane Irene in 2011
They certainly aren't as severe as others- which am grateful for, but they do bring back lots of stories about how we dealt with them.
So many stories in all these images - some really stunning pictures! Thank you for sharing them.