Author(s): Amanda Cropp

NZ Biographies

Imagine sharing a portable toilet with your neighbours for months on end, showering in a shipping container in the fire station car park, or travelling for three hours a day on six different buses to get to and from school. Such was life in post-quake Christchurch for Amanda Cropp and her family. On September 4, 2010 New Zealand's second largest city was rocked by the first of three major earthquakes that between them killed 182 people, damaged 100,000 homes and devastated the central business district. Journalist Amanda Cropp, a longtime Christchurch resident, describes what family life was really like in the quake zone as she struggled to come to grips with the "new normal". In the suburb of Sumner where she lives many houses were evacuated after cliff faces collapsed, and hundreds of shipping containers line the streets as protection from rock falls. More than 8000 aftershocks have frayed residents' nerves. Quake damaged roads make travel a nightmare. Yet despite all this, life carries on. The quakes have reinforced the importance of family and friends, and a sense of humour is indispensable. "It's hard to comprehend how those few seconds changed our lives. I didn't ever imagine I'd resort to digging a latrine in the back garden between the olive trees but we found ourselves in a twenty-first-century city that was suddenly without power, water or flushing toilets. I met a woman in the street who said, 'Thank goodness I've been doing yoga so I can squat.'" This book will make you laugh and cry. It is funny, provocative and poignant, and shows that living in a disaster zone brings communities together, that people do indeed step up and look after one another. This is a story about the resilience of a community suddenly struggling with the simplest of daily chores in a time of crisis.