Quake fallout lingers for city | Wairarapa Opinion | Local Voices from Wairarapa, New Zealand

I still remember clearly how I first heard about last year's February 22 earthquake. It was on Twitter.

Someone tweeted that Christchurch had suffered another shake, and the cathedral spire had come down.

I didn't quite believe it.

After surviving the quake in September, and all the many shakes since, the idea that the spire had come down, so many months later, seemed ridiculous.

But within a few moments pictures of the damage had been posted. We stared at them in the newsroom, trying to take in that these were not pictures from September, this was new damage - new and more horrible than anything we'd seen before.

Now, a year on, those images are just as raw and hard to watch.

When you consider how much work there still is to be done in Christchurch, and how long it will take for the city to be rebuilt, a year seems hardly any time at all.

But for those who have been living in damaged houses, with limited services, and coping with the stress and anxiety of being constantly shaken and constantly reminded, it must have been a very long 12 months.

It's hard for us, from what feels like the relative safety of Wairarapa, to understand what it must have been like.

Which is why it's heartening that people around the country have not ceased looking out for those affected by the quake. Just last month, a group of Christchurch families were brought to Riversdale beach for an escape from the reality of the quake-weary city.

And today we will all take a moment to remember those who were lost in Christchurch, and those who continue to live with the aftermath.