23feb Many Miracles Near Misses Poem by Terence George Craddock (Spectral Images and Images Of Light)

many miracles
near misses
80% of city
has no water

water flooding
outside my place
stable thank God

ground shaking
'severe' in city
centre only 10

kilometres away
earthquake's epicenter
widespread reports

severe building damage
two buses crushed
by collapsing buildings

75 per cent of city
left without power
an active fault area

approximately 225
square kilometers
of fault load unloaded

'One side of the fault
moved about 1 metre
relative to the other'

last quake we
dogged the bullet
this is why
weaker is worse

last year's 7.1-magnitude
earthquake was more than
10 times stronger than 6.3

but caused no deaths
because it occurred deeper
at greater depth further

away from Christchurch
its epicentre was 40
kilometres west of city

that quake caused
widespread damage
several power outages

particularly in the city
of Christchurch but mass
fatalities were avoided

not a single soul died
because of miracle timing
4 September 2010
4: 35 am Saturday morning

the people the people
were safely sleeping
most people were off

the street few houses
are of unreinforced
construction that quake

was 10 kilometres
below ground
this quake was only
5 kilometres deep

this February earthquake
occurred during lunchtime
business rush hour traffic
in heart of work day Tuesday

not before dawn Saturday
many buildings were already
weakened from previous quakes

contrast risk minimum;
magic bullet empty
buildings; risk maximum
killing zone despair

New Zealand sits
on tectonic boundary
between Pacific plate
Australia-India plate

with 14,000 quakes a year;
Christchurch is another frontier
near to related secondary

faults; the Alpine fault
pristine Southern Alps
spine of the South Island


Copyright © Terence George Craddock