Television
From the adversity of Canterbury’s killer earthquake comes an uplifting story of Kiwi practicality.
It’s 2020, and another significant anniversary approaches: in September, it will be 10 years since the first Christchurch earthquake, which caused damage but no loss of life.
The day that is burnt into our collective memory came six months later, when the second quake caused the most trauma and became our fifthdeadliest disaster.
And as Christchurch continues to rebuild, it’s important to tell the stories of September 4 and February 23, remember the dead, acknowledge the living and salute the heroes.
Help Is on the Way (Prime, Sunday, 8.30pm) is the story of Christchurch’s second-tallest building, the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Cashel St, and some of the people who were trapped inside on February 23, 2011.
The hotel, built in 1986, was 26 storeys high. It emerged later that a supporting wall collapsed, causing the disintegration of a section of stairs between levels 22 and 14.
Andy and Amber Cleverley had the misfortune to have been upgraded to a room near the top of the hotel. When the quake hit, they were both thrown to the floor. Andy remembers actually “getting air” as he was bounced around. Plates and glasses fell off shelves and smashed.
Jeremy Clark, a traveller from the US, was convinced the building was coming down. “I thought we were free falling, essentially, and I remember thinking, ‘When it stops, I want it to be lights out. I don’t want to be the person at the bottom of the rubble who’s lingering for days.’”
At first, the Cleverleys were trapped in their room by a bent doorway, but even when they emerged, they discovered, along with other guests and staff, that the stairs were gone below the 22nd floor.
And here is where a tale of Kiwi practicality emerges. A group of workers were on the top floor repairing damage caused by the September earthquake. After the initial shock and confusion, builder Barrie Chewings realised they could essentially corkscrew around the remaining stairs and he and plasterer Leigham Mathias set about breaking down doors and slowly walking everyone down. Remarkably, they went back up to retrieve people still stuck above the 22nd floor.
It was an event that caused post-traumatic stress disorder, nightmares and other trauma among the survivors. “It really made me focus on what’s important in life,” says Andy Cleverley.
And, says Clark: “I certainly live for the moment a bit more. Life’s a mess, but it’s a beautiful mess.”