TRAPPED - Remarkable stories of survival from the 2011 Canterbury earthquake

 “The raw emotion of these personal stories makes for a moving and dramatic book. They provide a fascinating perspective from survivors who cheated death, some only just, and carried on.”

— Paul Rodwell, Christchurch Central Fire Station Officer, who rescued survivors from the rubble.

On the afternoon of February 22, 2011 a massive aftershock devastated the city of Christchurch and it’s people. That day many lives were lost as people went about their normal daily routine. The randomness of this event is almost unfathomable. As it sunk it that we had lost 181 people in the earthquake there was another statistic less well known — the number of those injured. Hospital records indicate that around 250 to 300 people were treated for serious physical trauma in the hours following the quake. In Trapped, Martin van Beynen presents the stories of some of those for whom life can never return completely to normal.

Many people in Christchurch talk about what might have been, but many did not have the sort of dangerously narrow escape most of the people in this book speak of. They are survivors who very clearly cheated death. Most came very close to being killed by the first jolt or needed to take quick action to improve their chances of survival. Those who weathered the initial carnage but were trapped then had to wait many harrowing hours when they could have died at any minute under further collapses of building rubble that were triggered by the waves of strong aftershocks that followed the initial quake.

In some cases survivors lay trapped next to the dead and dying, and many now find themselves dealing with memories of those, who for no other reason than random chance or the arbitrariness of life, did not come home that day. It could so easily have been them. Many of the survivors in this book lost friends, family and loved ones. They have to cope with the huge gap in their lives and each day the fact that they are still here serves as a reminder of who is not.

Survivor guilt is a well-known concept. Many of the survivors felt it – for a short time anyway. Others continue to be wracked by it. A survivor in her sixties feels terrible she survived when so many promising young people with their lives ahead of them were cut down. A father struggles to understand why he is still here while his partner and baby died. Some look back on their actions and ponder the awkward question of whether they could have done more or chosen a better option. It has been hard to avoid the ‘what if’ questions.

For all the difficulties and burdens survivors must carry and overcome, the survivors who have been generous enough to provide their accounts for this book are, on the whole, glad to be alive. They are testament to the resilience of the human spirit.

Author Martin van Beynen is an award-winning journalist for The Press. In the 2010 Qantas Media Awards he won the Story of the Year award for his feature on the trial and acquittal of David Bain and in September 2011 was announced Fairfax Media Journalist of the Year 2010-2011.

Penguin Books - NZ$35.00

A portion of the royalties from Trapped will be donated to the Burwood Spinal Unit in Christchurch

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