Submitted by Hannah Nevel on the 2020 winter session program in New Zealand sponsored by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering…
When I first arrived in New Zealand, I thought this place was the greatest on Earth. The people are overly nice, the communities are the most sustainable I’ve ever seen, and the environment is unscathed. As my first week went on, I came to find out that like many other places, New Zealand has seen tragedy. In 2011, Christchurch, one of the major cities in New Zealand, experienced a 6.3 magnitude earthquake. 185 people were killed and 164 were seriously injured. Although this earthquake occurred nine years ago, the damage and effects can still be seen today. Walking through Christchurch you see many buildings supported by scaffolding and beams. It’s sad to see a community still trying to fix and rebuild what the earthquake broke so many years ago, but if any group of people is going to bounce back from this tragedy, it’s these people. Their resiliency and compassion for each other and for their environment is inspiring. I think that we can learn a lot from them and I am excited to continue to do so on my program.