An anniversary

At 12:51pm on February 22, 2011—one year ago today—an earthquake struck Christchurch, New Zealand. 182 people died. Billions in property was damaged or destroyed, as this became the most expensive natural disaster as a percentage of GDP that the world has yet seen.

Everyone in New Zealand has been touched, directly or indirectly, and far too many people are connected in some way to the people lost. But everyone is affected, even if only in small ways, like the taxpayer money going to rebuild the city, or that our premiums for house and contents insurance are going up by about a third. Still, that’s nothing compared to the human loss.

The above video is a trailer for the feature documentary, When a City Falls. The film is now available on DVD. Even the trailer evokes that day.

The New Zealand Herald has published before and after photos.

And, with thousands of aftershocks, big and small, since that day a year ago, the nightmare faced by the people of Christchurch is far from over.