No rest for the people of Christchurch, New Zealand

I feel so very sorry for the people of Christchurch. The stress they live under is unimaginable.

I was talking to my cousin a few nights ago, he and his family live in a small town close to Christchurch. Over 300 houses in their town are to be demolished as they are no longer safe. One elderly couple had committed suicide last week as they could no longer cope with the stress of their house ruined and the continuing shakes.

And just yesterday they have had another 16 quakes, one or two strong enough to cause more damage.


(Photo and article below taken from the New Zealand Herald)


'Explosive' aftershocks hit weary city'
A series of explosive aftershocks near central Christchurch collapsed walls, trapped people in buildings and cut power yesterday.

Jittery residents relived the scare of September 4's 7.1 magnitude earthquake as a large jolt woke them at 2am.

A shallow quake at 10.30am cleared stores filled with Boxing Day shoppers.

The mid-morning aftershock was 4.9 magnitude, the largest since mid-November.

By 7.30 last night there had been 16 aftershocks - nine of which were 3.5 magnitude or above.

The latest aftershocks were a magnitude 4.4 quake at a shallow depth of 3 kilometres just after midnight today followed by magnitude 3.0 aftershock at a depth of 6 kilometres, at 2am both located close to the centre of Christchurch.

PS I have just looked on the Geonet site which details earthquakes in the NZ area, and have found that we have had one too - at 3.00am this morning! 30k north east of here, 5.4 which is quite large, but at a depth of 210km which is quite deep and not so likely to cause damage.