Are you ready, Teddy?
Martin Doyle
THE anniversary of the Christchurch Earthquake, plus the current discussion about just how ready Wellington is for a major shake, raise a lot of thoughts. Our town has a long, bruising history of earthquakes. Even in the year we were founded, 1840, the place suffered a long series of tremors which must have had them all wondering just where the hell they’d come to. In 1848, the earthquakes here were so bad that many residents just up and left. And in one very sad case, a ship carrying evacuees out of Wellington got caught up in a big storm before it could even get out of the harbour and ended up getting wrecked. Sometimes, there’s just no winning...
One or two people lately have been talking about ‘worst-case scenarios’ for Wellington. It doesn’t bear thinking about. I could imagine drawing up a worst-case scenario for Auckland, and no matter what I came up with, by and large Auckland would survive and the Jafas would live to fight another day. But, a worst-case scenario for Wellington...?!! Just thinking about the bleak catastrophes we’ve already seen, and then mixing them together, results in nightmarish visions worthy of Dante’s Inferno. What madman (or woman) could bear to visualise the diabolical possibilities for a ‘worst case’ outcome in the Capital...
One pictures an 8.5-magnitude earthquake centred out past Point Jerningham, knocking down most major buildings like pieces of domino, followed by a succession of 10-metre high tsunamis that washed away everyone and everything. There would then be a period of searing heat waves that turned the whole city into a dust bowl. And just as a final coup-de-grace, a 275kph cyclone (the same as in the Wahine Storm) would blow all rubble and dust into Cook Strait, leaving just a flat, shiny ‘parking lot’ [and two or three parking wardens] where Wellington once stood.
Odds are, luckily, the reality of our next ‘bad hair day’ in Wellington, will be not as bad as the ‘worst case’. But one thought I can’t get away from (forgive the pun) is the lack of exit routes from downtown Wellington. Say, if the Beehive topples over and blocks Bowen Street, and say, Woodward Street, the Cable Car tunnel, and Plmmer Steps are all out of action, it’s game over for everyone in the inner city. A lack of escape routes has been a key cause of death during disasters throughout human history.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
One or two people lately have been talking about ‘worst-case scenarios’ for Wellington. It doesn’t bear thinking about. I could imagine drawing up a worst-case scenario for Auckland, and no matter what I came up with, by and large Auckland would survive and the Jafas would live to fight another day. But, a worst-case scenario for Wellington...?!! Just thinking about the bleak catastrophes we’ve already seen, and then mixing them together, results in nightmarish visions worthy of Dante’s Inferno. What madman (or woman) could bear to visualise the diabolical possibilities for a ‘worst case’ outcome in the Capital...
One pictures an 8.5-magnitude earthquake centred out past Point Jerningham, knocking down most major buildings like pieces of domino, followed by a succession of 10-metre high tsunamis that washed away everyone and everything. There would then be a period of searing heat waves that turned the whole city into a dust bowl. And just as a final coup-de-grace, a 275kph cyclone (the same as in the Wahine Storm) would blow all rubble and dust into Cook Strait, leaving just a flat, shiny ‘parking lot’ [and two or three parking wardens] where Wellington once stood.
Odds are, luckily, the reality of our next ‘bad hair day’ in Wellington, will be not as bad as the ‘worst case’. But one thought I can’t get away from (forgive the pun) is the lack of exit routes from downtown Wellington. Say, if the Beehive topples over and blocks Bowen Street, and say, Woodward Street, the Cable Car tunnel, and Plmmer Steps are all out of action, it’s game over for everyone in the inner city. A lack of escape routes has been a key cause of death during disasters throughout human history.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
Have Your Say
0 Comments
No comments.