Christchurch Earthquake

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What a nightmare.

Another earthquake in Christchurch. At least 65 dead, but probably many many more. It's tough not knowing what the full impact is

It must have been a terrifying night for the people down there, not only those stuck in collapsed buildings, but all the people with no homes to go to.

Tough times in this part of the world.

 

In the local forum I frequent, there was a short discussion about a tremor felt today. And about a couple of hours or so later, I read about what happened at Christchurch. Sad, it seems that natural disaster or related phenomenons have been rampant these past few months. The blizzards and heavy snow falls in North America and Europe, dead birds and fishes in US, several flooding in Australia and some Asian countries (Philippines included) and now earthquakes. Could the Mayans be right about the world ending on December 2012?

 

Definitely.

Swim with dolphins while you can, nior.

Hope you and yours are OK, Harbs.

 

Deathmage is okay but his power and water are out.

 

Glad to hear that Deathmage is OK. I'm sure life will be pretty difficult for him for a while though.

 

Good luck to people in New Zealand... It's sad when such a tragedy strikes. I hope everyone there is ok.

 

The September one was a lot deeper, and a fair bit out of town - not to mention it occurred at around 2am, so the CBD was empty. This one struck midday, close to the surface and 5km outside of the centre city.

The geological people say that they believed one this size was going to hit, eventually, we're just unlucky with the location, depth and timing of it. From what I've heard the rule of thumb is that the biggest aftershock is 1 degree of magnitude lower than the original, so with a 7 in September, it was only a matter of time before a 6 hit.

It was amazing watching it unfold on TV. First all that was known is that something had happened. Then about an hour later the first live footage came out. On the street outside the TV HQ and they'd be panning the camera around with buildings still falling down around them.

Must be terrifying been there now. With every aftershock you'd be jumping up thinking another big one is hitting.

 

My thoughts and prayers are with the New Zealand population, as will be some money once a reputable charity tells me they're gonna send help over there.

 

Thoughts and prayers with the people of Christchurch <3

 

I only today saw how bad it was. Yikes. The brother of a friend is stuck in Christchurch, unharmed, but stuck still.

My best wishes to all you Kiwis.

 

Harbs - how bad was the earthquake outside of Christchurch? I know that was the hardest hit, but New Zealand isn't that big, so I imgaine just about everyone felt the earthquake. IIRC, you live near Aukland, on the northern island, whereas Christchurch is (I think) on the southern island. So I hope that means you were at least relatively more safe there.

 

I've heard its bad there-haven't seen the new on it.

I hope as many people as possible made it through and I think it is possible people who rescue those trapped under collapsed buildings are headed there from around the world or will be.

 

Who is/was fly2thesky?

 

If you look at a map of NZ, it was pretty much felt between Wellington and Dunedin, although it was hardly anything more than a small small shake up here. I'd be amazed if anyone in Auckland felt it

 

I heard about this yesterday. My prayers are with you guys in and around Christchurch. It looks bad.

 

No, no way could it be felt from Auckland. Auckland is 762km away from Christchurch, and not only that, it's on a completely different island. So zero direct impact on me. But Christchurch has been flattened. It's really really bad. So many people with nowhere to live and no water to drink. It's going to take years and years to sort out the mess.

The awesome thing is all the people who have been offering up their houses for displaced people to come and stay at. Such spectacular generosity can be found in times like this.

But there are still hundreds of people missing, so there's a lot more bad news still to come.

 

Yeah, the pics of the city centre I saw looked like after an air strike.

 

HB, perhaps some good news, too. Even as late as this, survivors aren't unheard of.

 

Well, that's at least good news for you. I know the two cities aren't that close, but with the San Andreas fault in California, it is not unheard of that major quakes are felt hundreds of miles from the epicenter.

The thing that surprised me the most is that this was not considered a particularly powerful quake - 6.3. In an area where quakes are fairly common, you'd think the building standards would be such that most structures could take such a quake. Apparently not.

Watching the late news last night, I saw pictures of a couple who were just rescued. They had been trapped in there for days, but other than being dehydrated, they seemed none the worse for wear. They guy was actually standing up when they got through to him and his wife.