General Chat

An 7.1 earthquake hit here in NZ at 4.30 am this morning in Christchurch down in the South Island. I have just been watching Sky News and a state of emergency has just been declared for Christchurch this is mostly due to the fact that infrastructure (particulary water and power supply) are in doubt.

Further information can be found here:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news

Dear Michelle

Hello

Hope you are okay.

Hope all our New Zeland GR cousins are safe and well.

Take very gentle care
Very sincere wishes
xx

Hi, Michelle - we've been talking about it on the Aussie thread. We have a Kiwi on board but luckily she is near Auckland so is ok. I hope you are too and that you don't have family in or around Christchurch.

S x

That's a big quake.!
I hope all our friends are safe.
I'll go and find a news site to find out more.

Someone in Christchurch was very kind to us when we visited. I hope she and her family are OK.

My friend will be glad that she flew home from there yesterday....

Gwyn

Hi Elizabeth and Sue, I'm up towards Auckland too. I wasn't aware of the earthquake until a man spoke to me about it while I was walking the dog, as I hadn't seen any news at the point. Got Skynews on now listening to people calling in with their stories - most of them sound like they are taking things in their stride and just getting on with their day.

Gwyn it is lucky your friend flew out because the airport's closed.

Michelle - I'm glad you're away from the area although I do feel badly for anyone who is there. Having watched the news when it first started breaking on SkyNews the quake has certainly caused a lot of problems - electricity and water the main ones.

S x

Luckily there do not seem to have been any deaths. This is the largest quake NZ has had since 1931.

Fire broke out in one building when the power was turned on again. I dont know if the fire brigade had enough water pressure to deal with it.

And on top of the earthquake, over on the West Coast of the South Island a plane crashed at Fox Glacier, just after taking off, and killed all 9 aboard.

I am glad I live in the North Island, though that does not mean that we wont have an earthquake. In fact a few years ago we had some small ones where we live. We do not have a brick and tile house because of the danger. They were the ones that suffered the most damage in Christchurch.

Huia.

Michelle, my apology's for putting up another thread of the earthquake as I didn't see this one. Huia kindly informed me.

I too hope everyone is alright but, it's going to take a while to sort out the initial problems ie water, electric etc.

I am a fan of rugby league and we have had quite a few NZ players over the years, and managers on my local team and they were all brilliant and lovely people and taught us the Haka, even though we are league not union and it was great!

My heart goes out to the families of those in the plane crash. Take care everyone xx

Katherine xx

The South Island certainly has had a lot to deal with today, the earthquake and the plane crash and the latest weather forecast is for gale force winds and rain coming in the next 24 hours in the area hit by the earthquake.

The moral of all this is, 'build your house on a firm foundation' and dont build brick houses, they are the ones that suffer. Also brick chimneys tumble down.

Huia.

ONe of my school mates emigrated to New Zealand several years ago and I've been chatting to her on FB, she lives 2 hours from the epicentre of the quake, they didn't have too much damage but were having aftershocks for several hours. Now they are being hit with the severe winds, she has already had several trees uprooted.

Dear All

Hello

Sending caring thoughts to our New Zeland GR cousins affected by the earthquake.

Hope everyone is safe and well.

Take very gentle care
Very sincere wishes
xx

In one street all the houses have to be demolished. They were built on an area that was once a swamp. It had been drained and soil built up, but the quake liquified the soil and sewer mains broke and the resulting contaminated water went through the houses. This is why I say build your house on a firm foundation. The houses are fairly new, too.

Huia.

We've been following it on the news here in Canada and wish everyone there well. I was hit by a 4.2 a couple of months ago (just shaken and shaken up!); a 7.1 is a monster.

We hear that after several bad ones in the 1800s, New Zealand adopted very stringent building standards and practices that make things much better able to withstand quakes now, which is why things aren't as horrific as they might have been these days. Although, from your last post, not as much better as they should have been in some cases. Beware creeping laxity!

And keep safe.

I sent off an email to an old friend who now lives on South island, about 160k from Christchurch, all was ok fortunately, safe and well and no damage to their house which is built on concrete pads. He said it was like being on a rocking boat in a very rough sea , made him feel sick.

It was felt bad enough here in Ashburton prob 50klms south from the epicentre But we havent got the devastation that is in Christchurch its hit parts of the town and other parts seem untouched But it is a miracle there were No deaths it happened at 4 35 in morning and not during Day when shops offices would have been full of people
aftershocks have continued reguarly and some of these have been magnitute 4 and 5 on Saturday we sat glued to the TV watchingIt unfold just like 9 /11all over again

Hello Margaret. Glad you are ok. I knew we had some members in the South Island.

Huia.

Its rocked and Rolled most of the night very tiring Will have to get sleep when we can :)

These tremors of the 4.1 to 4.5 variety - aftershocks that have been happening are worrying the little ones and the elderly.
A couple of youngsters were trying to dig up the sludge which has surfaced looking for the lad's bike - they did find a wheelbarrow sunken down by the side of the place.
It is amazing the amount of properties where the darn quake has gone more or less through the middle of them.
In today's paper it says that about 100,000 homes have been affected in some way or other.

I don't think there is anywhere here in the shakey isles that is completely safe - I live in a city of 50 dormant (?) volcanoes.

Persey

About an hour ago a 5.2 quake struck the Hawkes Bay area of the North Island, I haven't seen any reports of damage yet.