Massive earthquake devastates Christchurch, NZ

Thank you kev,that’s good.
She works shifts,so she could have been in either place.
It’s really bad luck that this one happened at lunchtime on a working day.I wonder if there’s any hint that it’s about to happen ?
Mr.Bee says he thinks cats run away,which is a fat lot of good if you don’t own a cat.

BumbleBee.

Not sure this will help in anyway but an item on the BBC news at 1 spoke to someone from Lyttleton who said that although the place had been knocked about he was unaware of any deaths or serious injuries in Lyttleton. I suppose it’s at times like this that faith really comes into its own.

Is it just me or does this earthquake seem different? We’re used to seeing these tragedies in third World Countries but for us in the First World it seems so much more devastating to see the destruction of things we recognise. I suppose it makes us appreciate the fact that we don’t normally encounter the natural disasters we’ve seen over the last couple of years in Australia and New Zealand.

It’s hard to know what to say that could offer any practical or emotional help to those involved in this tragedy. All we can hope is that the death toll remains (relatively) low and that the people of Christchurch and the city itself return to a semblance of normality as soon as possible.

Regards,

kev35

Words can’t do this justuice, but really sorry to hear what is happening over there at the moment.
hopefully the death toll will not rise.
The Antipodes really have experienced a tragic time in the past few months.

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.

Heard the Historic Timeball was pretty badly damaged.The epicentre was 5 kms under Lyttleton.
Yes it is a beautiful harbour,blew me away first time I saw it from the top of the Gondalas.Hope all are safe.They are working all through the night to reach survivors.

Thanks Dave.

Not good news,she lives in a 100 year old house on a hill near the harbour.I took this picture from her garden in 2009 –

Bumblebee, Lyttleton was the centre of one of the quakes. It is totally cut off by road due to slips and the tunnel was closed all day, only reopening an hour or so ago for emergency vehicles only. A news chopper flew round there and the village is pretty devastated by the look of things. The Mayor I think it was, or council, declared Lyttleton and Brighton both unliveable, so presumably they have lost electricty, sewerage, water, gas, etc.

The phones are definately down across the city and they are urging people not to use them or to try to call in, as the few landlines working are being used by emergency workers and are getting overloaded. They recommend texting or if they have electricty back which most of the city now doe, email or facebook, etc.

Terrible!:( Earthquakes appal me having been near Skopje many years ago and stranded in the the devastation, so my heart goes out to everyone affected.

I still can’t get through to my friend in Lyttelton,does anyone from NZ know if there’s been any damage there ? I haven’t seen any mention of it online.
She works in the city,so I pray it’s just that the phones aren’t working.

My thoughts are with everyone in Christchurch,a beautiful city in a wonderful country.

Amen.