This is a guest post by Karl Yates, Director of Avonmore Tertiary Institute, Christchurch. ED asked some people for feedback on the impact of the Christchurch earthquake and Karl gave such a great picture of the work being done at Avonmore to get up and running again, that we decided to run it as a guest post. If you’d like to add your own perspective, feel free to do so in the comments (or write your own post).

We will be ready to operate again by Wednesday night, with the only issue being the ongoing aftershocks and the continued lock down of the CBD.

We have two buildings both located within the CBD.

Our primary site is at 202 Cashel St, and is 11 stories high. This incorporates Business Administration, Hairdressing, Management and  IT training areas plus Administration and Management staff. It was checked by an Engineer throughout yesterday and is structurally sound with no physical damage. Higher up the building the contents of shelves are thrown considerable distances. A few broken printers, computer screens, crockery was inevitable.

I’m glad I was not here at the time of the big quake. Having been 11 stories up during a few minor aftershocks is bad enough.

Our other building at 203 Hereford St, just a block away is 4 stories high. This includes all our Hospitality training. It is an 1890’s construction, historic building, but fully earthquake strengthened. This was also checked yesterday by engineers, and is structurally sound except for a piece of decorative parapet on the north west corner.  This has to be removed, before normal operations. Workmen tell me this will be completed by tonight. Wednesday night.

We are well insured, for both damage and Business interruption. Claims are not likely to be large compared to other businesses, but will depend on how long the CBD lock down continues. The largest claims will relate to our hospitality division where a substantial restaurant operates, with business losses and food wastage. Even Frozen foods will be wasted as we have no way of knowing how long power was off and therefore if food is safe.

Issues

The CBD remains locked down except for owners and managers.

Several old buildings are near collapse, with 3 within a block of us being at real risk. Until these old buildings are demolished or made safe, the CBD will remain closed. We do not know how long this will be, and their time estimates keep getting extended, caused mostly by substantial aftershocks.

At this point we expect to continue to pay staff, and I presume our business interruption insurance will cover this, if the delays go on.

Communication with staff and students has been an issue. With the power going out, the Servers all closed down. Once we could get our IT staff back in this was quickly resolved, although other power outages have seen this process repeated.

Communicating the message to our staff and students to watch the Avonmore website for updated information has been successful. The phones continue to run hot with queries from current students. Once staff are back we will use our txt messaging service to advise students of actual class start dates.

We are concerned re the welfare of our70 or so International students, who are so far from home at this frightening time. We have our International liaison staff following up, but a few have not yet been contacted.

We are now pretty much ready to operate again as soon as the CBD is open. We will have a staff only day first for clean up, and then we will be ready for students.

We are now in a state of limbo until the CBD reopens, for staff and student access. The most important thing is that people are safe, and that injuries have been minimal. We must ensure the ongoing safety of all, so while frustrating, we support the work being done to make the city safe again.