NewZealandAtoZ on Christchurch and Canterbury New Zealand Earthquake 2010/2011

This is from one of our reviewers in Christchurch for the September earthquake. Since this was written Christchurch has had the devestating 6.3 February 22nd earthquake that killed 182.

The Morning of the September Christchurch Earthquake.

When the sun rose after Saturday mornings massive 7.1 earthquake (The biggest in New Zealand since Napier 1931) it was a mess that has been unseen in the region.

This earthquake was comparable to the earthquake that wreaked havoc in Haiti which was 7.0 and caused 230,000 people that had died, 300,000 had been injured and 1,000,000 made homeless.

There have been a lot of broken wine glasses and lost family heirlooms, damaged homes but no loss of life at this stage (5pm Saturday). By this time there have been 21 aftershocks measuring up to 5.1.

Speaking from my own point of view the morning was spent cooking on our log burner, cleaning up the mess and assessing damage to family friends and property (2 TV's 1 DVD player, 1 CD player 1 wine glass, cracked pot plant,  cracked garage floor, a bit of water leak from the ceiling, and a bottle of scotch destoyed or damaged).

We went for a walk in the area to assess the damage in our neighbourhood  when we got home found our power had come on at around 10am so we watched TV to find out all about what had happened to us overnight

Many households had no power or water, so no TV or game consoles, Saturday sport was all cancelled so it left families with little to do except talk and think how lucky they were. With this families took to the streets on a sunny spring day checking out the damage and taking photos and swapping stories.

There has now been a state of emergency enforced so the police are stopping the "rubberneckers" just driving into town to see what has happened. There has been no real problem with looters and the police are doing a good job of keeping the central city safe.

The friendly nature of the Cantabrian has also shown through with strangers helping strangers and neighbours who have never met finally meeting to lend a hand.

There are many roads that look like waves with big cracks in them and a load of money and time needs to be spent on them.

In the last few months Christchurch has banned open fires and older log burners. Advice has just been given if you have gas and electricity to switch the gas off. I feel for the poor people with no way of heating their homes or cooking because of the loss of their fires and switching to gas or electricity.

Only time will tell what the real outcome of this disaster will be.

Here is a link to the recent earthquake activity in New Zealand

Here is the Official Canterbury Earthquake Website

Here are Earthquake services

Earthquakes video and pictures on The Press

This is a great google map showing all the earthquakes.

Christchurch residents who want to find out their land rating after earthquakes.

Christchurch Earthquake Land Classification Map.

Update 3.18 Sunday.

Friends with no power came over for dinner Saturday night. Salads were made, meat about to be cooked and we were ready to watch a movie when the power went out until 1am. Turned into a night of chat and cooking on the log burner then an early night to bed. 

We had earthquakes all through the night so it was hard to sleep as you were always waiting for the next big one.

66 earthquakes between 4.36am Saturday and 3.00pm Sunday