Friday 6 April 2012
 |
| Cistern ready for cover construction |
2:30 am. It’s raining
very hard, with loud thunder and bright flashes of lightning. Sue gets up to see if the rain pouring off
the roof valleys is hitting the two new rain barrels. It seems to be right on target. We need the rain. At 7 a.m. Jim, Simon and Sue are staring out
the door at a scene we didn’t want to see – the two side walls of the cistern
collapsed at some time overnight, probably under the pressure of the rain
drenched earth packed in beside the walls.
The cistern hole is filled with water.
The side wall blocks are not visible at all, while most of the end walls
remain in place, about half the wall’s height visible above the water. Many of the end wall blocks are sheared in
half by the weight of the collapse.
 |
| Cistern at 7 am on 6 April |
Yesterday the cistern was ready for construction of the
cover. This morning we are looking at a
water and debris filled hole in the ground.
 |
| Cistern cleanup begins |
By mid-morning the cleanup begins. The water is bailed by hand, no electricity
available except every other night for two hours. The bailed water creates a river around to
the back of the house. Next bricks are
handed out, but most are crushed by the cave in. By the end of the day there are still mud and
bricks to bring out. We're very thankful no one was hurt in the cave-in or
during the clean-up afterwards.
 |
| A river of bailed water |
 |
| Bricks coming out |
 |
| Progress at the end of the day |
No comments:
Post a Comment