NZ earthquake

[paddyscar]

Hope all our friends in New Zealand have escaped serious injury, and that your losses are few. I'm sorry to read of the devastation it has caused in Christchurch and surrounding area.

All the best and God bless,
Frances

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings from New Zealand.

Thank you Frances, and the TS Team, for thinking of, and praying for, those caught up in the earthquake, and continuing after shocks, that have hit Christchurch, NZ's second largest city and surrounding districts.

Fortunately, so far, no accidental deaths due to the shocks, but heart attacks and births, have being running at a historic high, these last four days. As large after shocks continue to rumble in, sleeping becomes a huge issue as residents fear the next shock, could be their turn, to experience damage, or greater damage, to their homes and businesses.

Heritage brick and masonry buildings, have been totalled, but so too have been near new buildings, built to today’s rigorous building standards, when straddling the fault lines, or built on alluvial silts with high water tables. Brick chimneys have taken a very heavy toll, causing major damage in otherwise OK buildings.

On RootsChat, New Zealander's caught up in the shocks have shared their experiences. This time I/we were lucky as the Waikato was not affected, nor was North Auckland where I was on a cattle buying mission.

Alan SHARP.

[joette]

Glad to hear you are ok Alan.The pictures on the news were pretty shocking. Lots of damaged buildings but as you say nobody killed.

Pretty scarey that even the "earthquake proof" buildings took a hit too.
Hope you & yours stay safe.

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings joette.

The recently built dwellings I was referring to, were examples of stand alone, single story family homes with, in some cases, a sprawling footprint. While they did not crumble, the massive movement of the earth under them wrenched them into modules, with large cracks between sections. There were chasms in the ground opening up and reclosing as the shock waves rolled past, and also there was shearing along the fault line up, to several meters each way, in places.

In some high water table areas, the ground below the buildings turned to porridge, and quick sand, and could no longer evenly support the buildings above, again contorting the structures.

Had we not had such rigorous building codes, the structural damage would have been far worse, and lives would have been lost. (The RootsChat forum now has over 10 pages of personal experiences from their Christchurch family historians. It makes for sober reading.) Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

Alan SHARP.

[Waverley]

A Magnitude earthquake of 6.3 has struck Christchurch this afternoon with more central city building damage confirmed deaths at present is 69.
Buildings have collapsed on top of floors below them and rescue work is continuing to save as many persons as possible from these buildings.
Christchurc Cathedral has suffered major damage this time compared to the quake 5 months ago.
Jim Wilson

[momat]

This has been to quote the Prime Minister "New Zealand's Blackest Day"with 65 dead at this stage.
There are 200 missing and the City is ruined.

[annie1]

My thoughts and prayers are with all those that have been affected, and their families, a terrible disaster.

Ann

[Currie]

The story has been running continuously on Australian ABC News 24 since just after it happened. It’s usually a direct feed from NZ TV. It’s very distressing viewing. I’m not sure if it’s viewable outside of Australia or if NZ has an equivalent online service.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/abcnews24/

All the best to everyone in NZ and stay out of trouble.

Alan

[car]

Our thoughts and prayers are with you all.

Christine

[Ina]

I pray for the people of Christchurch.......... such devastation.