?What if-woosh, right now, with no explanation-a number of us simply vanished? Would we think it was the Rapture? Would some of us collapse? Would others of us go on, one foot in front of the other, as we did before the world turned upside down.? Tom Perrotta ?The Leftovers?.
That is what the bewildered citizens did in Mapleton, a stereotypical fictitious US small town, in the aftermath of an event known as the Sudden Departure, in which hundreds of ordinary citizens suddenly departed in the middle of living their ordinary lives.
Some of the dearly departed were more sinners than saints, to the chagrin of some professional clergy who were less than rapturous that they themselves didn?t make the cut and had to stay behind and minister to the undeparted.
Kevin Garvey, Mapleton?s new mayor-a former businessman with a new community vocation- tries to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to the shattered community. But nothing is the same as before the Sudden Departure not marriages, not relationships, not friendships.
It?s two years last week since the first big seismic event, the 7.1 Greendale quake on 4 September 2010, changed our Cantabrian world forever.
In the phony seismic war before the deadly 22 February 2011 quake, we were rather nonchalant about the risk from on going quakes. The City of Christchurch hosted the Paralympics a month earlier in late January 2011. The Games opened with a parade through the central city which had been shaken by the boxing day quake virtually under the CBD as the post-Christmas sales bonanza was about to kick off. A month later the cathedral spire toppled on the site of the VIP?s marquee which had seated the Prime Minister and other national and international notables.
Since September 2010 we?ve had 11,965 quakes, 100 over 4.72 .magnitude*. The frequency is reducing: there have only been 18 quakes over the last 7 days, and the Richter scale severity is also decaying , though with the occasional spike to keep us on our toes.
The Guilty Minority
One cult which followed the Sudden Departure in Mapleton was called the Guilty Remnant, whose members took a vow of silence as they struggled to come to terms with the selective cataclysm.
In post quake Canterbury, my family is in in the guilty minority of those whose houses are now spick and span, touch wood (rough hewn rimu-strong and flexible). Just before an amazing earthquake anniversary thunderstorm hit Christchurch last Wednesday, accompanied by dazzling meterological pyrotechnics, the multinational team of repairers and decorators that had been working for six weeks on our house 12 kilometres south west of the city centre finished up.
Until then most of our possessions had been stored in a container swung in expertly by the Peter Fletchers Transport driver over the fence onto the side lawn. We?ve been camping at home with my wife acting as Clerk of Works. Now the grandfather clock, which came crashing down in the first quake, is restored to pride of place at the front entrance and the cuckoo clock is back on the wall upstairs, no longer mute.
In the scale of things our damage was pretty minor, with no land problems because of the lava spur our house sits on at Kennedys Bush. We certainly didn?t have priority needs like many people in east Christchurch and at the other end of the Port Hills. Because we have no land damage or structural house damage the fix up was very straightforward: make good and makeover.
One or two small things still to sort out but otherwise it has gone pretty well and we are very lucky. Given the problems faced by others it would be unseemly to offer rapturous applause but here?s a quiet accolade of approval to EQC, Fletchers Rebuild and the subbies.
The stubbies are in the fridge waiting the final sign off.
*Blinks
http://www.canterburyquakelive.co.nz/#The two year seismic scorecard.
#Lyall Lukey 10 September 2012
http://www.lukey.co.nz/http://www.smartnet.co.nz
https://bluggerme.wordpress.com My other less serious blog
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Source: http://lukeytraining.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/canterbury-quake-anniversary-the-guilty-remnant/
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