I wandered around the Canberra Centre not long after it reopened at 11 o’clock this morning. I was told there are about two dozen shops still closed, and it looked like most of those were on the top floor. The wost damage seems to have been done to Borders and Dendy (neither of which would let me take photos) and to Country Road at the other end of the centre.
A big chunk of Country Road’s ceiling had fallen in, as seen above and there were lights and plaster all over the floor. Borders looked (from peering in the front window) like it had lost maybe a third of its ceiling tiles, in the front section at least. They had covered the bookshelves in black plastic and there were men wheeling trolleyfuls of soggy plaster ceiling tiles away.
Up near Borders about half the new eating area was closed off and there was a largish puddle on the ground.
Overboard had quite a lot of water left in its store. Perhaps they should have opened and given people the chance to trial their surfboards. I didn’t notice any other stores with this much water, but did see a shoe shop with piles of soggy shoeboxes up on the tables.
It seemed like the older section of the centre was the worst affected, apart from damage up the Borders end of the expansion. A lot of the shops that were shut looked like it might have been from power still being out as much as from water damage. Section of the pretty, moulded ceiling in the corridors had fallen down as well.
There were large wet patches on the floor near where they’re still doing building. I noticed several people sniffing as they passed this area.
Probably the most inconvenient thing (apart from all the closed shops) was that the main escalator block in the new section was closed, meaning everyone had to use lifts to get to and from the carparks. It also meant walking a lot further to move between levels, which didn’t worry me but during weekdays you do find a lot of mothers with kids and elderly people in shopping centres.
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