Level 2, 7.4 Earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand
We’ve woken up to some bad news here in New Zealand this morning. Christchurch residents were jolted awake by a 7.4 earthquake and there has been a lot of damage. So far only two people have reported as seriously injured and people are being told to report to their nearest medical facility if they need attention rather than go down to the hospital.
Reports will come in slowly as electricity and sewerage are down.
There has been some looting, but police seem to have it under control. There is a lot of damage to the CBD but luckily it was quite empty given the early time of the quake. There are some aftershocks and the CBD has now been closed and people have been asked to move away from the sea in case of tsunami.
There is a request that people NOT use cellphones as the backup batteries now have less than an hour of power left on them. If it’s absolutely necessary (ie. you are overseas and want to know about someone) you should use text (sms) messages, but keep it to a minimum.
The quake hit at 4.35 am 30 kilometres west of Christchurch at a depth that is estimated at 10 kilometres.
I am in Auckland (where we’ve felt nothing) but if there is a question I can answer I will stay near Twitter this morning on @shantiwallah.
SO glad to hear you’re safe. I guess there was one in Souther California around the same time.
Some reports report the depth as 33kms but a later one said it was at 10kms.
Thank you. Really? Often you see them ping around the Pacific, but this was only on a minor local (Canterbury) fault. Hope things don’t start shaking over there too.
Level 2, 7.4 Earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand…
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Thank you!
Glad to hear it didn’t spread. How lucky was everyone there that no-one was killed. On the news here it looked like the buildings didn’t fuly collapse so people could get out? Frightening
Thanks Niamh. Yes, I’m still in disbelief that nobody was killed considering the amount of damage to the buildings. From news reports, there were a lot of near misses and I’m (we all are) just thankful that everyone was eble to escape the worst.
Hi Marie:
Sorry to hear about the quake. Wonder if its realted to the distant re-awakinging of the volcano in Indonesia somehow?
L
Thank you for thinking of us. Yes, I often wonder about these things because there’s never just one set of shaking. You almost always hear about other somewhere in the Pacific. I just hope our local volcanoes don’t wake up!