One of the things about living in New Zealand in general and Napier in particular is the ever-present threat of earthquakes. I have experienced minor quakes but never anything too bad. They are, however, quite scary even at fairly low magnitude when things fall off bookcases! Last night my time and in the middle of rural France as I am the internet came into its own when I learned of the huge earthquake which had some six hours previously struch Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island. I am acquainted with a number of people in Christchurch and many friends have friends and family there - New Zealand is a 'small' place in that it's 4 million or so population is spread far and thin.
To give some idea of what Christchurch is going through the distribution of the last 30 earthquakes in NZ is shown on the following map. The four not concentrated over Christchurch happened on 1/2 September but the 26 over Christchurch have all been in the last 24 hours.
The following five happened within about an hour starting (bottom first) with the major 7.1 magnitude quake.
Some of the pictures to be found on New Zealand's Television Station website are:
And the very latest note from a friend in Christchurch:
Definitly not good down there. Hope everyone is OK. A miracle if they are.
ReplyDeleteWe were lucky Adrian - it hit so early Sat morning - when most people well out of the centre where many of the worst buildings are damaged. Could have been so much worse - as it is I think one man has had a heart attack and two are injured enough to be hospitalised -
ReplyDeletea miracle indeed
:)
We were lucky Adrian - it hit so early Sat morning - when most people well out of the centre where many of the worst buildings are damaged. Could have been so much worse - as it is I think one man has had a heart attack and two are injured enough to be hospitalised -
ReplyDeletea miracle indeed
:)
Sorry to hear about this. I missed most of the TV news last night and have not been listening to any today either so far, so not sure how much was reported here.
ReplyDeleteI have friends living in Taiwan and they've been through a number of earthquakes over the years. Odd (or perhaps not?) how knowing just one single person or family in a catastrophe area mentioned on the news brings it all SO much closer emotionally than all the other bad news that keep streaming into our homes daily from around the world...
It has been a day of listening for news reportsever since I heard about it on the radio at about 5.00am. It was felt in here in Wellington - but not by me or the cat, and there is no damage here.
ReplyDeleteJust heard on the 11.00pm radio news that Christchurch is secure and all is quiet. Fingers crossed for Sunday as gale force nor'westerlies are forecast for Canterbury.
I was sorry to hear this, too...when I first saw the news report, I immediately wondered how close it was to your NZ home and all of your loved ones there.
ReplyDeleteAwful, isn't it? And the after shocks are still happening. I really feel for the residents.
ReplyDelete