Christchurch, NZ Hit with a Major Earthquake

[IceDog]

The day the earth roared | Stuff.co.nz

A very moving account of the tragedy...

[GordMay]

The official death toll for the Christchurch earthquake has risen to 145 this evening (Feb. 27) and is expected to increase. Police are gravely concerned for more than 200 missing people.

News from Wheels:
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...eeler-502.html

Hi Gord. Thanks for the thoughts. A big event for a little country and even smaller city. Aside from the actual events taking place right now, I am not really sure how the city is going to move forward from this. Nor country for that matter. They are saying the cost will be from 10 to maybe 16 billion dollars and it places it in the top 5 most expensive disasters around the world. That's a lot for a small country. The big thing is nearly all the buildings left standing are seriously damaged anyway and will need to be bulldozed. So many businesses are not going to be up and running for a very long time.
I feel very useless where I am currently living. It's my home down there and being a very practical hands on person, I want to be able to help. All I can do from here is listen and watch the news and offer words of support to my friends and family.
There are some very sad stories, but also some very wonderful stories also and you have to just stay focused on the positives.
No further survivors have been found for three or four days now and I do hope someone will still be found alive. It would help moral and hope for those down there at the moment. We now have about 700 USAR people down there on the ground now. Special teams from the UK, US, Japan, Isreal and Oz are now here with special equipment and dog teams. The military is in 24hr operation. 300 extra Police are here from Oz. Sadly we have looters. I can't believe that NZ has people like that. We even had two people caught stealing generators from Cell sites. If really in need, Stealing food or water or blankets from say a supermarket would be understandable. But all those things are well catered for. Pretending you are an official to be able to enter someones home to steal valuables is just unforgivable. I hope those that get caught get the book thrown at them.
Thanks for your thoughts Gord. Good to hear from you.

Anyway, here is a link to some good pictures

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/christchur...116954#7384504

http://www.nzherald.co.nz

Some further information came through today. Although the magnitude is only 6.3, the acceleration of movement is the fastest ever recorded at around 2G. So hence the level of destruction.

Alan
________________
Wheels

[EllanVannin]

well more drama for us. We were evacuated from our home yesterday due to potential danger from the massive rockface collapsing up behind us. We can go backnow but on the understandin we are on a 5 minute potential evacuation notice.

Not sure if or what we will do. Have grabbed as much clothes etc and all in back of the car!!!!

Found a bed at my nieces but homes that are safe are getting very full of all the people who cant stay in thee homes.

So much I could tell you all, I almost cant begin.

Been out with my husband last night (he works in an essential service) and at every place you turn there is devastation, its ovewhelming. Impossible to describe. The deaths, the piles of rubble no one has had time to get to yet and search, the impassable roads, the sirens, the distraught people, the COLD (its supposed to be summer and it is like 10 degrees centigrade). I cant take it all in. I cant see how we can recover from this.

Peoples jobs, homes, businesses are just gone. I had only seen the news reports which are only showing such a small selection of the total picture. I am blown away by being out and about in the city for six hours last night.

I am glad were are leaving on our boat in 8 weeks on the one hand but distraught at the thought of leaving my parents, elderly relatives, friends and my city to cope on their own..

From my own small self I can only offer so much thanks to all you folk out there offering our city support. We have rescue teams here from Australia, US, Singapore, UK etc etc it's fantastic.

[IceDog]

I think about Christchurch and it's people very day. I believe and hope that the worst is over for most of the people though it must be a surreal experience to see your city like it is today. As bad as the death toll was, it seems like it could have been much worse with so many people in Christchurch. I still feel very much in shock and I am on the other side of the world. I can't imagine what it is like to live there and experience this tragedy. One personal piece of good news, all of the members of the US Antarctic program in the area are safe and accounted for. It's a close knit community and folks used Facebook and networking to check in. Many of my friends have been looking for ways to help and I just heard about a possible fundraiser in Denver being organized by Ice folks there. I don't think I've ever met anyone who didn't love Christchurch and it's people...
Take care of yourself and your family. Best wishes to all in New Zealand.

[EllanVannin]

Thanks so much Icedog. I am so glad to hear yet another good news story of your friends out at base. The level of support the international community is providing is seriously humbling.

Kia Kaha

Regards Clare

[GordMay]

More from Wheels:

The current death toll stands at 145 and will continue to rise. Ruffly 300 are missing, but not all that number maybe actually missing. Many just freaked out and got in cars and drove. Some have been known to have been rescued, but can not be found in the "system" yet.
Of the biuldings that remain standing, at least 30% are damaged so badly, they will have to be demolished.

A comment has been made about the buildings being up to US standards. That is quite correct, apart from many of the older Historic ones of course. However, even those had been Earthquake strengthened. After all, we sit on two major plates and we are one of the most active earthquake zones in the world. We get ruffly 30 shakes per month across the country. Most are in the Magnitude 3 to 4 and sometimes a good rumble may reach into 5 just to remind us all where we live. The real big ones tend to be in far more remote areas of the country and/or Deep and so we do not see damage at ground level. Having said that, we have still had major quakes in the past that have caused much destruction. So far a major populated City has not been struck till now.

So where am I going with this? Well, we are fairly well prepared for big quakes. Many buildings have been strengthened and new ones have been built to the latest requirements. Yet so much has been turned to rubble by what is really not a huge earthquake measured at M6.3. The "CTV" building was not new, but still built to a standard that should have survived very easily. In fact, it even had rubber shock absorbing mounts on the foundations. It was five stories and it collapsed into the ground like it was made of sticks. All that remains standing is the lift well.
Another building, the tallest in CHCH is The Grand Chancellor, at 26 stories tall. It has moved 300mm (1ft) out of line on it's foundations and is expected to fall any time, which will take out a couple of blocks and is heavy enough to create a ground shock wave.

So why the level of destruction??? and why so much destruction when only 5 months earlier, we had an M7.1 with no where near as much damage.
Well a very scary figure has come out, that has made all the seismologists freak. They have measured a Ground acceleration of 2G's. That is huge. That means that every building has had to withstand a force of 2x the force of gravity in a sideways motion. How many skyscrapers could standing being tip onto their side and held only by there base, unsupported above the ground and then shaken. So the news and suggestions among the geologists at the moment is, maybe they have to redo the equations that buildings are designed to.

CHCH (Christchurch) is a small city. The largest for the South Island, but only 350,000 people. So infrastructure is still small compared to Wellington and Auckland. Wellington (the capital) is smaller in population, but it is the financial capital of NZ and being a small footprint due to geological factors, it has many skyscrapers. Auckland is home to 1.8 million people and has many tall buildings and motorways that stand above the ground and so on. If this quake happened in either of those two, the damage and possible death rate would be huge and hugely crippling to NZ.
Related, but slightly aside, NZ is subject to a very rare, but very real threat. Super Tsunami's. We have never had one in Human time of NZ, but we have much evidence of these waves, with some standing as high as possibly 600ft. Just a few years back, a survey was taken of the seafloor just off our coastline. To everyone’s horror, huge undersea landslides were evident of having occurred. So just two weeks ago, a detailed study of what, where and how big these things are. Fortunately none of them are off the coast of CHCH. But the North Island has many and just one being triggered could or would wipe out huge area's of population.
But hey, now to put all that in perspective, we are but a blip on the scope of geological time. Something could happen tomorrow, or may not happen for another 10,000 years from now.

[EllanVannin]

lol gee thanks for those encouraging words

As i sit here in bed not sleeping having had a night of huge rumbling aftershocks. They are not even registering on the geonet websites. but the whole hillside is just booming and rumbling. I am not enjoying living above the epicentre I can tell you!

I got a big fright a few hours ago as one hit and a police patrol car pulled up outside. I thought we were getting our 5 minute evacuation call with regard to the huge piece of the cliff that is either going to come down naturally or will be brought down directly above my home. They are now unable to bring it down with water and may have to blast it. Well that was the latest civil defence update I got today.

One good thing out of this whole experience I realised today is that this week is good training for cruising life.

I have been

using "baggies"...my god not even on my boat do I have to do that
rationing water
carting water in jerry cans (ironically we had 7 brand new 20litre diesel containers in garage ready to take up to the boat)
making do with what is in the stores cupboard
coping without electricity
hand washing essential clothes
dealing with natures forces

However I am not sure I could recommend this as the ideal way to get some idea of the challenges of cruising.

[S/V Alchemy]

My sympathies to you and the rest of my friends in New Zealand. I just heard about an acquaintance who wasn't killed because she was outside of a building having a smoke! Not sure how to interpret that one.

Your point about cruising seems sound to me. After this, you may find that your assumptions about what is truly necessary in the way of amenities aboard may get shorter thanks to this experience, nasty as it has been.

Which means, I suppose, that when the boat's system or gear breaks down or malfunctions or throws a critical bolt 1,000 NM offshore, you be mentally ready for it!

[EllanVannin]

Yep I'm with you on that one Alchemy.

I'm not nicknamed Pollyana for nothing.

There has to be positive results out of this situation and I'm doing my damndest to find em
Thanks for your kind words