# Christchurch earthquake



## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Sounds really bad 

Report


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

As at the time of this post, 65 dead. Christchurch experienced a 7.1 late last year.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

It's awful. People stuck in collapsed buildings, night is coming, lots of displaced people. And as HC says, the second massive earthquake in 6 months, with non-stop aftershocks in between.


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## Moraviac (Feb 18, 2011)

Really horrible!


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

A relative of a friend of my daughter's was being evacuated out of a collapsed building when the building started falling on the rescuers. Everyone got out, and just as they laid his stretcher on the ground a large chunk of building fell on him, slicing his leg open so badly it's probably going to need amputating.

In a way it's hard to believe as I sit watching Monteverdi in Auckland in the North Island of NZ with life just continuing as normal.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

mamascarlatti said:


> A relative of a friend of my daughter's was being evacuated out of a collapsed building when the building started falling on the rescuers. Everyone got out, and just as they lay his stretcher on the ground a large chunk of building fell on him, slicing his leg open so badly it's probably going to need amputating.


Oh that is so awful.



mamascarlatti said:


> In a way it's hard to believe as I sit watching Monteverdi in Auckland in the North Island of NZ with life just continuing as normal.


Life may be continuing but I expect everyone's thoughts are with the people of Christchurch.


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## Herkku (Apr 18, 2010)

I feel for the New Zealand, too! Luckily Mamascarlatti lives in the Nothern Island. Aren't there earthquakes at all? Here in Finland they are so far away that people occasionally see the water in their aquariums ripple a bit, but that's all. Our floods and storms are also minor compared to ones happening in some parts of the world. Our volcanoes have stopped erupting thousands of years ago. What we do have just now is too much snow...


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## jurianbai (Nov 23, 2008)

I felt sorry for this.

this is one of good thing in international forum, that we can share personal experience in case of a disaster happening somewhere (it's quite often...). just month ago I really think like to open a thread about disaster when a flood happening in Brisbane. I have many friends there since it was one of my post city and so far I depend many information on forum like this.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Herkku said:


> I feel for the New Zealand, too! Luckily Mamascarlatti lives in the Nothern Island. *Aren't there earthquakes at all? *


Volcanos. Active one in the middle of the island, Auckland is build on over fifty of them, and here is what I drive past every day:










When Lake Taupo blew two thousand years ago red skies were reported in Rome.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

mamascarlatti said:


> Volcanos. Active one in the middle of the island, Auckland is build on over fifty of them, and here is what I drive past every day:


and I used to wake up to that view



mamascarlatti said:


> When Lake Taupo blew two thousand years ago red skies were reported in Rome.


I have a piece of pumice I picked up from the shore of Lake Taupo. It's quite big  I'll find it at the weekend & post a photo.


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## Herkku (Apr 18, 2010)

Outch! It looks beautiful though.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

sospiro said:


> Life may be continuing but I expect everyone's thoughts are with the people of Christchurch.


Very true.


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## Hazel (Oct 23, 2010)

Such a disastrous sorrow. I've a friend who is shaken because, just a few weeks ago, he was visiting New Zealand and had climbed to the viewing platform of Christ Church. At that time, they were still recovering from the September earthquake when Christ Church was spared. Not this time. Pray there are no more deaths.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Still about 100 people thought to be trapped in the collapsed buildings, with 200 Search and Rescue personnel looking though them.

I don't see this city recovering from this, not the second one in 6 months. So many traumatised people, probably our worst natural disaster in European times.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Things like this seem to make my own problems seem like nothing in comparison...


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## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

I feel very sorry for the people of Christchurch, and glad that Natalie and her loved ones seem to be safe in the North Island. About Christchurch never recovering, human nature is resilient. New Orleans here is thriving again, little by little.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Yesterday BBC radio was talking live to a guy who didn't know where his wife and son was. He was trying to be positive but you could hear the distress in his voice.

Just now he was interviewed again & said his wife and son were safe. He tried to describe the feeling when first his wife walked through the door & 10 minutes later, his son. Such an everyday thing, normally.

@Natalie - any news of your daughter's friend?


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

No news of him.

I'm watching the evening news now, the searchers have given up on one collapsed building because they dont think anyone has survived, (those poor people waiting outside for news) and it looks like a major hotel is about to collapse.

There is no water, power and most worryingly no sewage disposal.

300 missing.


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## jhar26 (Jul 6, 2008)

Horrible.


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

mamascarlatti said:


> There is no water, power and most worryingly no sewage disposal.


Even when electricity and gas/power are restored, fire following is a dangerous reality because of the disrupted and damaged power source and connections in structures.


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## Edward Elgar (Mar 22, 2006)

New Zealand's darkest day.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

We're getting Search and Rescue parties from Japan, Taiwan, the US, the UK etc arriving today. Australian ones are already on the ground. It's now day three and the temperature fell to 8C last night despite it being mid-summer, so those trapped people would have been cold as well as scared and dehydrated - if still alive. The problem is also the constant aftershocks which further destabilise buildings.

However some people were pulled out alive yesterday, and there was a bit of relieved joking (us Kiwis like a bit of inappropriate humour).

It's going to take a lot of money to rebuild the inftrastructure here, as power, water etc had been largely destroyed.

Edit - they are now only finding bodies, no more survivors.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Before the England v France rugby match they had a minute's silence to remember the people of Christchurch. Impeccably observed.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

The guy who has auctioned his boulder was interviewed on the radio this morning.

He was asked about the name & said there'd been a discussion about whether the rock was male or female. Some people said it's male because it just sits there doing nothing. Others think it's female because it's claimed half the house.

Great resilience being shown.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

One of the responses on the auction site came from a woman who wrote:

"I'm a single woman and would like to know if Rocky is interested in a serious relationship. Here are some of the traits of my ex, eg, no personality, stoned all the time, sits on his **** and does nothing and I guarantee the TV remote is under him somewhere."
:tiphat:


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

Rocky is on Facebook

He had already found fame in Indiana Jones










& more recently had a small part in Lord of the Rings


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