Thread: Kiwi Earthquake

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AmeriCARna was one of the best Meguiar's shows I've seen in a long time. . . Gotta love the New Zealanders!!!!

Prayers are out for all the NZ'ers. The pictures are incredible. Sent an e-mail out to friends who are vacationing in that area. They replied that they left 22 hrs. before the quake. Visited the Cathedral and was staying 3 blocks away. They said they were feeling lucky and also sad for all the people that are suffering.

Very sad news with so many deaths and casualties.NZ is having a tough time with the mining disaster and now this.Have friends in ChCh and thankfully they are safe.Looks like many are still not accounted for so there must be many families having a very hard time.

Its not good down there,Roger..I think theres 65 confirmed dead,still about 300 missing,and now,rescue attempts are hampered by the possibility that one of the buildings they are trying to get into may collapse completely..There is a 6.30pm curfew in the city now,which started 30 minutes ago..There are the odd looters out there too..hope they get caught and jailed..

Our prayers are with you in this time of tragedy. We just heard that a United Airlines plane is due to leave at midnite with a search and rescue team as well as high tech equipment to help in finding people in the rubble hopefully still alive. This team was very successful in Haiti and is very well trained. We will hope and pray they ate successful in their rescue mission.
Ken

A dumb question, but are earthquakes common in that area?


Don

Not till last September..

Don,the whole country sits on/in an earthquake fault,I think...that is,according to the old Readers Digest atlas anyway.We have had a few bad ones,sometime in the late seventies,from memory,in the eastern north island,,did a lot of damage,Inangahua,on the west coast of the south island,[70s]Napier,in the north island,back in the early thirties..and a few others,I have probably forgotten..Its only a small country,and a big quake has far reaching consequences..We quite often have little tremors,just like the ones I experienced while on holiday in California in 1991..but scattered all over the country.Thankfully,we dont have too many like this.I dont know how long this lot is going to take to clean up,but it will be YEARS..The centre of the city is STUFFED...and a lot of the old buildings will have to be totally destroyed,as the bricks and mortar are just not up to it structurally. It is just so devastating.
On another note,we are all grateful for the help offered from different parts of the world,including your government,for search and rescue teams,which we also have coming from our Buds across the ditch,in Aussie..and Asia,I believe..And Lynda,my wife,has posted a link on Facebook to this thread,to show everyone else the support you guys and gal[s] are giving us..Lump in my throat...see ya later..

I saw some coverage on the news last night and it's heart crushing. It may just be me but there have been a lot of earth quakes over the past year.
My prayers are with you there.

My thoughts and, such as they may be, prayers are with my NZ cousins. I believe you all will come through pretty well; it seems to be our nature to do so. Having grown up and lived most of my life in shaky California, I sort of have a feel for what you are going through.

We are known as "The Shakey Isles"

We had a 7.4 earthquake back last september & it did a lot of damage but as it happened in the small hours, there were no casualties. But we had about 5000 aftershocks.

This time it hit at lunchtime so we have 76 officially deceased, and up to another 300 unaccounted for. Initially, we hoped most of them would turn up in the next few days, but we havent seen that number dropping yet, so thats looking pretty tragic too.

Lots of aftershocks again this time. The rescue people are working with those risks and are awesome

My Youngest nephew, Daniel graduated from UC Davis last summer with his degree in Enology (winemaking). He starts working a harvest in Northern New Zealand for 3 months starting in March. He had three weeks to explore the territory so he invited his older brother that graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, also last June, but with his Masters in micro medical engineering to join him for the three week vacation. Two days later, the earthquake hits Christchurch and no communication from the boys whatsoever. Didn't know if they stayed up north, moved south...nothing. No cell phone communication, no Facebook, no e- mails, nothing. Very unusual for them. Daniel was supposed to rent a local cell phone the next day and call with the number but never did. My brother-in-law, a doctor, normally doesn't get worked up about anything. But after a couple days of no communication, he reported them missing to the State Department. I have no idea how they found them, but they did. Safe and sound, up north, traveling, seeing the sights, sunburned and not thinking to call. Everyone else was worried...they were fine. And so the saga ended, with relieved family and two embarrassed young men...... I hope everyone else's stories have a happy ending like ours.
Ken

Wow, that had to be a heart stopper. Glad it worked out well and hope everyone else has the same outcome.

Don

wow ken i would have been ill with worry. so very glad that the boys are okay. hope to also hear good news from whip soon.

Yes, very hectic time.
Whip, I hope you are ok.
Ken