Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Signs of Earthquake Times

In the early days after the 71. earthquake struck in Christchurch, there was a flurry of new signage in the city. I'm a big fan of signs at the best of times and in 'the worst of times' I was delighted (in a non-morbid kind of way), at the hastily-written notes that appeared all over the city. The few times I have made it out and about (between book writing commitments), I photographed a few - from the formal council signs: green for 'this building is ok', yellow for restricted use and the dreaded red for danger, to the personal signs on business doorways.
I suspect this UNEVEN SURFACE sign will have become the council's most used in recent weeks.
The one no one wanted!
And one of several signs outside churches around the city. Unfortunately, as a fan of church architecture, I'm sorry to see that Canterbury's churches have been among the hardest hit of all the historic buildings in town. Most have significant damage and several are now 'propped up' with enormous steel beams....but more on that another day.... In the meantime, I can't help but smile at the optimism of this sign, outside St Lukes I think it was, on Manchester Street. Having seen the damage to churches, even if I had an urge to pray (and I haven't yet), a church would be the very last place I'd be entering during these shaky times.

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