In case you haven't heard, there was a devastating earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand's third largest city, yesterday.

Last September, in the middle of the night, Christchurch was hit by a massive (7.1) earthquake which fortunately was deep enough and far enough from the city itself that, although it did a lot of damage, incredibly no one was killed. Since then there's been a constant stream of aftershocks, which has been worrying and exhausting for all in the area, but until now further damage has been limited.

Yesterday a huge (6.3) and very shallow earthquake struck at the end of the lunch hour just 10km from the city center. Sadly this time the result has been catastrophic. Several busy office buildings have collapsed, and falling walls have crushed vehicles and sidewalks throughout the CBD. There have been rock-slides in hilly suburbs and liquefaction and flooding in low-lying suburbs. The official death toll currently stands at 75 but is climbing steadily as rescue workers uncover more bodies while searching for survivors. The only saving grace in all this is that many of the most at-risk buildings had already been demolished or were empty awaiting demolition or repair following damage suffered in the September quake.

The entire city has shut down to focus on emergency efforts. Fortunately, the airport and most major road links in and out of the city are working, so they're ok for food and water distribution, and most of the housing is intact. Hospital facilities are overloaded (not helped by quake damage to a small number of wards), and they ran out of ambulances almost immediately, but emergency services are pouring into the city and they are able to move injured to hospitals in neighboring regions. Providers are working hard to restore power and communications to all areas, but water and sewage services are going to take longer to restore. The authorities are requesting that all businesses except those providing essential services stay closed until further notice, and that people stay at home to make it easier for emergency services using the damaged roads.

Christchurch, which has a population of less than 350K, was already staggering under the burden of cleaning up and the ongoing stream of aftershocks following the earlier September quake. As well as the direct impact, there will be very few people in Christchurch who do not know at least one person personally who has been killed, injured or is currently missing. On a national level, New Zealand is so small that there are few here who don't have family or friends living in Christchurch.

Although communication has been very limited, I've managed to get two texts through to my sister who says that she and her family are fine (including her husband who works in the CBD) and and their house is ok. How they're feeling and what they've had to deal with, we'll find out in time.

Please send your love and thoughts to all those individuals who are affected by this disaster and by all those other disasters that have happened and are happening around the world.

"There, but for the grace of God, go I."
- Zen

Gods, it feels ghoulish to mention this -


The Auld Grump

This is horrible. I hope that aid (from near and afar) is actually helping out and not getting caught up in bureaucracy.