Massive earthquake devastates Christchurch, NZ

Thanks for the kind words folks. I live in the Northern edge of Christchurch and suffered very little damage, still shocked at the damage to the rest of the city but as a friend of mine(flies B737s and is an ex-RNZAF and Safe Air engineer) likes to say: “Man built it?” Man can fix it” he proved that by bringing the engines back to life on ex Safe Air Bristol Freighter ZK-CPT.
But first the search goes on for survivors before we can even think about rebuilding although our Mayor has stated the Cathedral will be rebuilt and that has helped lift our spirits
Sadly the death toll stands at 123 with a couple of hundred still missing (may be tourists amongst them:().

Does anyone know whether it will be possible to reconstruct the Cathedral ?

It is obviously not a current priority, but the answer is ‘yes’. The issue is how much it would cost (very big number, and I can’t imagine would be covered by any form of insurance) and if the money to do so could be raised.

Still can’t reach my friend in Lyttelton,though I’m not surprised,having seen photos of the destruction there on the New Zealand Herald website.
Does anyone know whether it will be possible to reconstruct the Cathedral ?

On Wednesday I had to fly some freight down from Auckland to Blenheim, which is near the top of the South Island about 300km north of Christchurch, returning Thursday.

Although Blenheim is structurally unaffected by the earthquake, it is now host to a considerable number of refugees from Christchurch. As accommodation there is now in short supply, my overnight stay was in a private house. Also in the house were some Christchurch families with very young children. Each family was in one of the bedrooms, making the best of it. I got a mattress on the floor in the study – quite comfortable during the night actually, despite a nocturnal investigation by the family cat.

One of the refugee families has yet to hear from a relative who was in Christchurch at the time of the earthquake. The wife spent most of the time in front of the television watching the 24hr news coverage of the event hoping for news of him, good or bad. Her tearful suffering certainly brings home the human impact of such an event.

Just over a hundred confirmed fatalities at this time, but this is expected to rise to around 300 in a final count.

Last Christmas my wife and I spent three weeks in the Christchurch/Lyttleton/Banks Peninsular area. I wonder just how much of what we saw then is still left standing?

RIP 🙁 to the unfortunate New Zealanders.

Thanks for the information about Lyttelton,I’ll just worry about where her little dog is now.
I’ve always liked Lyttelton since I first saw it in 1999.
I loved the fact that the front page story on the local paper was, ” Man has bicycle stolen from outside supermarket “.

Many thanks for your reply, will have to see what to do and where to send, every penny counts.
Lincoln .7

Lincoln 7, in NZ we have a Government run body called the Earthquake Commission, which for every private home will pay out up to $100,000 for an earthquake-damaged or destoryed home, and anyhting after that the householder’s private insurance has to pay. This does not apply to commercial properties though, they have to have full earthquake insurance, or suffer the consequences.

In the wake of the September 4th quake the commission paid out around $3 Billion I believe, which came a week or so after the Government had just paid out around $1 Billion to bail out the failed South Canterbury Finance company investors, money the Government and NZ could ill afford in a time of economic crisis. Things were just starting to look a little brighter and now this, and today some British company estimated this will cost NZ around $16 Billion. Our economy will suffer terribly from this disaster right across the country, it’s not just a Christchurch issue.

The relief fund is being run by the New Zealand Red Cross at
www.redcross.org.nz/

Apparently the British Red Cross are also collecting
http://www.redcross.org.uk/nzearthquake

If it is your friend in Lyttleton you cannot get hold of it is not surprising. Virtually every single building and structure has been either badly damaged or destroyed in the town. it has almost been wiped off the map. Luckily by co-incidence HMNZS Canterbury was in port and their chefs are now feeding hundreds of folk who have no electricty, gas, water or sewerage, etc. Apparently the community have gathered at a hall and are sticking together but this is one of the worst hit areas and it looks really bad. However there has not been reports of any deaths in the town of Lyttleton yet, though at least one person is reported as killed on the bridle path between there and Christchurch, the rumours saying up to four might be dead on the path, from falling rocks. Such a shame, it was a lovely community. Apparently some of those made homeless slept on a ship that’s in port last night and will again tonight. There’s still no telephone lines in and the road remains very blocked. So don’t panic, they are probably alive and ok but ‘cut off’ a bit. That’s if they were in Lyttleton at the time. If they’d gone into the city it’;s another matter.

Things are very grim. 75 confirmed dead but the police estimate 50 to 100 more dead in the CTV studios building, 22 missing in the Cathedral, 33 missing in the Pyne Gould building that pancaked (though many more have been pulled out), and several other locations have casualties including the main shopping street of Cashel Mall.

And one of the tallest buildings in the city, a 27-or-so storey hotel is listing sideways and expected to fall any time, taking out several blocks of buildings below and probably causing a ripple on the liqiufied ground and much more havoc. As I said, very grim.

To cap it off the poor police who’ve been trying to rescue people had to arrest at least six looters in the no-go cordoned zone. *******s should be shot. Some scammer has also been running a bogus internet donation appeal too. It is sickening.

Absolute tragedy that so many have lost their lives. I know it will not bring the ones who have passed on, but do they, the Insurers pay up for incidents such as this, or say it,s an “Act of god?.” and don’t ?.
I have a friend in Aus who has lost everything except his family,in the recent floods. which is fantastic, if you knew his story. I asked him if a relief fund had been set up, and he stated the Aus Government didn,t need outside financial aid, as they had contingency plans for such things.
Has New Zealand, and if they have,set up a relief fund and need help, where do you send any cheques etc.

And we moan about the recent snow we had!!

Lincoln .7

I am glad you have had some good news, BB. These are truly worrying times for people with friends and relatives out there.:(

I spoke to my friend in Christchurch again last night.Their house only has minor damage compared to the last earthquake,and they’re not planning to leave the city.
They were awaiting the arrival of their daughter and her family,who live not far away,but have no electricity or water.
They heard the September earthquake on its way from the west,like a train rushing towards them,but this one just erupted without warning.

I still can’t get in touch with my other friend.

Indeed a very sad time for all concerned whether they be NZ residents or others among us (and by us I mean us as a worldwide community because this is going to affect very many people outside NZ too) with family and friends there. My sympathy goes out to you all.

It is a dark time in NZ indeed. The first time they’ve ever declared a National state of emergency. I think geologists say they can sometimes predict these things, but how many earthquakes in the past couple of decades have been predicted with the towns/cities evacuated? I think it’s very wishful thinking to think they can actually successfully be anticipated.

A tedious link, but my flatmate’s, sister’s, friend was found (not alive) buried this morning. It’s a very small country (population wise), there are going to be a lot of people with similar connections.

There has been a tremendous response from other countries. The UK, USA, Australia and Singapore have all sent teams over to help.

I’m not looking forward to when the next ‘predicted’ volcano erupts in Auckland…

I’m no expert at all but as I understand it from what reporters have said, it is not related to the main fault line. You might want to check on that though, as I say, it’s only what I’ve heard from the media during both quakes.

It should be remembered that Lyttleton Harbour is a large extinct volcano and there are undoubtely loads of fisures under that area.

Cheers for that knowledge Dave H.
Are they not related to the “Main” fault along the edge of the same plate?

That aside, the people affected are in our thoughts, we Brits have a special place for NZ.

PeeDee, that fault line which is well known (and was actually the fault line where the whole concept of techtonic plates was discovered many years ago by a kiwi geologist) is not the line causing these issues. The September quake fault line was a completely new, unknown one apparently, according to many reports after that event. And yesterday they stated in the media it was thought the current quake was different again.

Prime Minister John Key just announced a few minutes ago at a press conference that the death toll is now officially standing at 75 fatalaties, with 55 of them having been identified.

RIP

RIP the 65+.

Unfortunately, the South Island has a fault through it in an East-West direction. One of the halves is moving towards the Pacific at quite a rate (Techtonically speaking).
So, like Californy; South Island will have many more quakes.

Just heard from my eldest girl over in NZ.

Thankfully, she was in Hamilton on North Island at the time of the tremor.

However, her partner’s family live in Christchurch itself and they’ve had no news of them at all.

I’ve gone cold with your fear my friend. A sad sad day.