New Zealand's second-biggest city has been hit by an earthquake registering 7.1 on the Richter scale. While there has been vast structural damage to the city, thankfully there have been no reports to date of fatalities. Two men are reported to have been seriously injured.

Let's hope that the situation gets no worse and that the city rebounds with the customary Kiwi resilience.

ABC News (Australia) report (video).

Aerial footage

My brother lives in Wellington, he said they felt some shocks there too. When I talked to him he said this was the worse one to hit the south island. Glad to hear everybody is ok and no casualty.

Lovely country and lovely people the kiwis.

Took me two hours to get hold of my family in the early hours of Sat morning (Switzerland time). Very scary. More frightening to hear how scared they all were.
Approx 40km from epicentre.
Its so surreal to see all this footage of places that to me are immune from all the stuff that goes on in the world.
Its these times that make you realise just how far away we are from home......

A teacher friend of mine lives in Christchurch.. Ony a few damages in her flat.. Schools has been closed until Wednesday but she has to report on duty tomorrow with all the staff to clean the damages of school, which I find a bit wierd.According to her Dean , the damages are only superficial but her classroom is 2 storey under..she is a bit scared to go...surely they should send some engeneer first to check teachers can go and clear the mess..

....on the phone to my parents....

140km winds in Wellington...

Wow.... I knew Wellington was 'Windy', but 140km/hr is pretty serious.


I saw a few pics from a mate of mine in Christchurch. It's unbelievable how the roads are just torn up, bridges twisted, and buildings split.

Can't imagine what was going through peoples minds when it happened.

(probably happened during a Rugby match, and most people were concerned about the TV reception )

Other than the 2 people hurt, I'm glad no one was killed.

Actually, if i can be forgiven, I take that back (comment above).

The photo's I saw were kids running through the water, and doing jumps on BMX's over the broken roads, etc.

Just saw the video Jrspet put in above.... that's some serious sh1t.

Really am glad no one was killed.

Hope everyone in Christchurch is OK.

Mother said that it was at about 4am, with twisted roads and broken bridges - she said had it been during rush hour the story might have been different. As it was, one guy was hit by a falling chimney, the other by falling glass.
The centre of Christchurch (the real one, not the cheap northern imitation version) is closed off to traffic, schools are closed..
Apparently the epicentre was 10km below the surface, which is why, even with the wooden, malleable houses, there was a lot of damage.

Glad to see you up bright and early on a Sunday morning

Surreal


http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...05/3002818.htm

My brother lives in Christchurch. This last year we have all been following the damage of a number of earthquakes around the world, its surreal when it affects your own family. Thank fully we were drilled for such situation in primary. So he knew to get under a doorway while all the furniture crashed down around him. Even from a distance, it amazing to see how kiwis pull together!

Some pictures of the aftermath here.

Growing up I was always told there was the North Island, South Island and the West Island. I guess the West Island is now 12 inches closer

Have received texts from friends in my former home town and luckily they have all escaped relatively unscathed. Guess it is a "little" reminder from Mother Nature that we shouldn't take things for granted.

Hope all the NZ's on EF know by now that their families are safe. Luckily this seems to be much heavier in structural damage as human loss. Fingers crossed it stays this way.

To all the NZ's here, sleep tight.

Brings a whole new meaning to the term being able to "move mountains".

11ft (3.35 meters) to the right?
For a small country, they sure have a large influence..


wipes away tear... i used to live there...

My sister lives near Christchurch. Their place was relatively unscathed - they still have water and power. There's still about 10% of places that still don't have water and power.

It'll take a while to sort out the sewage pipes and all the other infrastructure that is underground and difficult to check.

There's talk of up to 100000 homes having been damaged by the earthquakes.

A lot of Christchurch is built on sand, and apparently during the big earthquake there were geysers of liquified sandy mud pouring out of the ground. All that stuff is got to be cleaned up.

There was a night curfew in the centre of the city due to falling masonry and to prevent looting. I'm not sure if that is still going.

Ironically they were lucky that it happened in the early morning when there were few people about. If it had been eg midday in the city then injuries could have been much more serious.

Schools and the university are still closed as far as I know.

It's not clear at this stage what the effect will be on the local economy. Insurance and the Government should cover a lot of the rebuilding costs. Lots of small businesses may not have the cash flow to be able to pay wages to their staff, and they could go under. At the same time the building/construction industry may experience a boom as a result.

They are still getting aftershocks.

I lived in Christchurch for 8 months and had my tickets booked to go back there to live permanently last november. I am glad that nobody was hurt and that the damage was not as extensive as it could have been

I have been emailing my sister this morning and she kept telling me as they were having aftershocks.
She sent me this website that shows each quake as it happens.
I still can't fathom this is happening in my hometown.

http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/

The scientists are still saying that a 6m is on its way. Apparently even though they have been having aftershocks up to 5m still, they still haven't had the usual large one that follows.

Shit - you mean that Taranaki is also 12 inches nearer to OZ?

And if Mt.Taranaki is also pulled 11ft to the right...............

then she's being pulled by both Ruhepehu and OZ!

What will be the result of that!!!!

Seriously it's good that so few were hurt, lucky it was at 0435 and not in the evening. Our house in Taranaki used to flex from time to time - I used to wake up thinking: what's my son doing now..!

Jerry

It appears the big aftershock on Wednesday did more damage than first thought – a number of buildings are now for the bulldozer.

Mayor Bob Parker Welcomes Visitors Back to Christchurch



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