What would you grab? Client database, contacts and accounts? Pic: The Press (click)
One of the unspeakably tragic deaths in the Christchurch earthquake was that of one victim who reportedly escaped from a shop with the owner, then ‘dashed back’ inside to grab her cellphone (perhaps to ring family and check on them/let them know she was OK?) and died when the building collapsed on her.
We’re all told in a fire to never go back into the building for possessions … this same precaution would probably have saved Ms Murphy’s life. Ghastly.
Now look at this photo from The Press (right) showing a man who appears to have ‘grabbed’ his business computers … to secure the information and records on them, most likely. I’m glad he’s alive, but gee, it looks like he took a risk, didn’t he? We’ll never know.
What do you save? Is it worth the risk? Tough one.
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My sincere condolences to Ms Murphy’s family, and to all those who’ve lost loved ones or suffered in this disaster.
That was a tragic story.
I think others would consider doing the same thing. Its certainly very sobering.
A step further that got me thinking is the question of helping others, I would instinctively run to help people but is it worth it?
The few times I’ve been a ‘hero’ I didn’t have time to think about it …
Hi Peter
I was actually Googling to find the picture you have above, and thought I’d comment on your article, as I personally know the man who is carrying the computers and can answer your ‘we may never know’ question.
He had already lost one business premises and records in the September earthquake, and had only just started to get back into operation with a replacement retail store. As soon as the shaking stopped, and he judged that the building he was in was not going to collapse, he ripped the cords out of his hard drives and took them with him when he left.
It was an instinctive reaction. In my own retail store, we had to wait trapped in darkness until the shaking stopped. I was actually waiting for our building to collapse.
Others ran outside out of fear from falling fixtures and fittings inside the building, or to save colleagues from danger. We all took some huge risks that day in the Christchurch CBD, to hopefully protect ourselves or the people around us.
Those that died or have been permanently injured (I know some of them personally) were not in any position to prevent what happened to them. It all happened so fast, that we could not think – we just reacted on basic survival instinct. In the case of Ms Murphy, she may not even have realised what she was doing at the time, which is truly tragic.
I hope that you or anyone reading this article and my comments are never in a similar situation to the traumatic one that myself and my community have lived through and are still coming to terms with, nine months later.
Should you wish to get a more indepth account of what life has been like for the Christchurch earthquake survivors, please visit my website.
Deb Donnell
Author
http://www.CafeReflectionsBooks.com
Thanks for sharing.
Those of us who haven’t been through those dreadful experiences you have can only imagine and empathise.
Good luck with your work and life.
-P