Earthquake in New Zealand

Ouchy ouch. A 6.3 earthquake hitting Christchurch, New Zealand's second-largest city? Not good.

My condolences to any affected families. Are there any tropers in New Zealand?

Is anybody else warped enough to share my thoughts on the irony of a city called Christ Church being nailed by a massive natural disaster?

I blame the impious.

Only two serious injuries. That relatively good?

The beautiful cathedral collapsed, too.

Gosh, another one? And in the same city?

And it seems this quake claimed a few lives. A case of bad timing this time, it having happened Tuesday afternoon and all.

Shame the cathedral lost the tower spire, coming from someone who is fond of olden architecture. I reckon people will lobby to have the building restored after all this blows over.

edited 22nd Feb '11 1:36:55 AM by MalagasyParrot

This isn't looking good...

And I see that someone else linked to the same site that I did.

I'm a little curious as to how Christchurch got nailed so badly, 6.3 isn't considered incredibly strong for an earthquake...

edited 22nd Feb '11 12:32:46 AM by TheGinkei

Shit. How many high magnitude earthquakes has that been along the pacific tectonic plate? Haiti, Chili, now New Zealand.

San Fransisco is about due for a mega quake like 1906 all over again.

^

Won't be as bad, California code didn't involve making all of our buildings Earthquake resistant or EQ proof. It's why the overwhelming majority of California buildings aren't very tall. It's very expensive to make taller buildings resistant to our constant quakes, thus they end up being big phallic symbols of "Look at me, I'm rich enough to build a 40 story highrise. Muahahahaha..."

It's not going to be peaches and cream either.

Where do you live again? Los Angeles might fall into the sea.

I presume many of the buildings were damaged by the previous earthquake which happened there recently, and hadn't been repaired yet.

Earthquake damage is to be expected, but the city hadn't even recovered fully from the September quake when this one hit. I doubt they even had the time to check on all minor damages from the last one.

From Christchurch here. Got power back about 90 mins ago. So far the confirmed death toll stands at 65 but is theorized that it could be over 200. Yes, 6.3 isn't as big as the 7.1 that happened but is worse for several reasons. The quake was shallow and centered right next to the city. Also the city was substantially weakened in the previous quake. Many building have collapsed here, I nearly got myself killed by a falling chimney, a bus a couple of hundred meters ahead of me appeared to have been crushed by falling masonry.

It's like a warzone here.

Glad you're all right, Strassy.

Reports here are confirming that as well - even though the magnitude isn't as high, it's just incredibly bad luck that epicenter was so close the surface.

Damn, this has been a bad summer.

But the icebergs are awesome. They are all blue in the pictures and look really alien.

Strassy, you're lucky you can post - according to news reports 80% of the city is out of electricity and the phone network is overloaded.

My sympathies go out to the people of Christchurch.

My sister and I have been trying to get hold of our family there for the past few hours without any luck.

Ouch indeed. My most sincere sympathies.

I hope for the best

If anybody was looking for pics, go here.

Srassy, I'm glad you were okay. Are there any truly major buildings, such as governmental offices, damaged?

It's not going to be peaches and cream either.

Where do you live again? Los Angeles might fall into the sea.

-shrug-

Can't say I'd mind if San Fran fell into the sea.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/christchurch-earthquake/4692170/Christchurch-wakes-to-quake-carnage

I guess that gives a good overview of what it's like here at the moment. I don't know about the government buildings but I suspect they're in a bad way as the buildings around them aren't much better. The cathedral lost its steeple and has apparently crushed a number of people underneath it (this happening at 12.50 p.m when all the tourists are inside). Cashel Mall apparently collapsed. One large hotel apparently collapsed and then caught fire causing major problems for rescuers. Certain main streets have been completely leveled and the startling thing is that a lot of these buildings are relatively new.

So far, from what I've seen, the residents are taking it fine because we kinda got used to the quakes and aftershocks. The tourists are freaking out.

I am very pleased to hear that while my family is down two houses and probably the better part of a business, we are not down any people. Luckily there's one house left between them all so they'll all be able to crowd into it for the time being.

Good news, Bur.

Glad to hear your loved ones are okay

Glad to hear that you're okay. It already sucks that dozens of people are already dead, at least we know for a fact that a Troper isn't one of them.

Glad to hear that your family is ok