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Shattered cathedral is quake city's 'broken heart'
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Shattered cathedral is quake city's 'broken heart'
AFP - Sunday, February 27
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Shattered cathedral is quake city's 'broken heart'
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AFP) - – When the shaking subsided and he emerged from his study to see dust billowing through Christchurch cathedral, Dean Peter Beck knew the heart of the city was broken.
Not only did up to 22 people die under debris falling from the 19th century structure, but its famous spire toppled spectacularly, symbolising the city's ruin.
"The cathedral is seen somehow in a sense as the icon of the city, it holds somehow its heart in a sense, and so that's become the symbol of this place," Beck told AFP.
Christchurch's best-known building, which dominates its central square and draws 700,000 visitors a year, had stood as an unshakeable symbol of defiance when a major 7.0-magnitude earthquake caused widespread damage in September.
The Anglican cathedral's resistance had inspired residents and became an emblem of Christchurch's resilience as more than 5,000 aftershocks tested their nerve and patience.
So when the aftershocks culminated in a violent 6.3-magnitude quake Tuesday that killed at least 146 people and destroyed whole blocks of the city centre, it was perhaps apt that the cathedral spire also fell.
"After September 4, I was saying the cathedral in the square stands strong and resilient, which it did. It symbolizes the strength and resilience of the Christchurch people," said Beck.
"Now of course there's a sense in which that heart is broken."
Dean was in his eastern study when the quake struck, sending great shudders through the vast stone edifice.
He and his staff managed to take refuge until the rumbling stopped. When they finally emerged the structure was seething with dust and echoing with panicked shouts for people to get out.
"We helped to clear it as best we could, we got people out and only then as it began to settle did we see what had happened," Beck said.
"The tower must have collapsed immediately, imploded upon itself and the northwest part of the nave, which links to the tower, also collapsed inside.
"And then of course you realise there would have been people under there. There were people up in the tower, we know that. There are visitors here who are dead."
Authorities have begun the process of securing the remains of the hollowed-out cathedral so searchers can retrieve the bodies of those who died there, most of whom are believed to be tourists. It is among the city's worst-hit sites.
Though he has counselled countless rescue workers and locals in the chaos since Tuesday, Beck says he hasn't cried yet. His own house is damaged and friends are missing.
But talking about the foreigners killed in the ruins of his place of worship, his eyes are moist.
It's not just the cathedral -- dozens of Christchurch's Anglican, Baptist and Methodist churches have fallen, claiming a number of lives.
"This is not an act of God, of course it's not an act of God, this is the Earth doing its thing," said Beck.
"For me the act of God is in the love and the compassion and the spirit that binds people and helps them to get through this sort of stuff."
It will be weeks before life can even approach normality, and months before thoughts will turn to reconstruction, but Beck is determined that the cathedral and other icons will be rebuilt.
"Those buildings aren't just buildings. (They) hold emotions and memories, (they're) the places where people come to celebrate and grieve and generations of people in our city have got links to those buildings," he said.
"In the midst of this darkness we hold onto a kind of light, the light of hope for the future because there is hope and we will move on.
"We will get through this and we will move and we will grow and I'm sure that we will be resplendent again in the future."
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