7.1 Quake hits Christchurch

pclancy

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4094986/Massive-7-1-quake-hits-Christchurch


Christchurch Earthquake
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BREAKING NEWS: A massive 7.1 magnitude earthquake has hit Christchurch, flattening buildings, seriously injuring residents and causing widespread damage.

Minister of Civil Defence John Carter said a state of civil emergency would be declared within the hour and the quake was a significant disaster.

The quake - initially reported at 7.4 magnitude but later downgraded - was centred 30km west of the city and 33km underground. It hit at 4.35am and has been followed by a series of strong aftershocks.

It was felt widely across the South Island and as far north as Wellington and Palmerston North.

Power is out to most of Christchurch and rural Canterbury, and the central city has been closed down by police because of the amount of rubble in the streets. Water pipes have ruptured and there are reports of flooding in some eastern Christchurch areas.

As many as 1000 residents from Christchurch's seaside suburbs may be evacuated due to flooding from broken water and sewage pipes. Civil Defence said a decision would be made shortly on whether to evacuate residents from New Brighton to Aranui or Linwood High Schools.

Emergency services have rescued about 10 people from holes in the ground including a person who was trapped in a pit in River Road after the ground collapsed.

So far, two people have been reported seriously injured in the quake.

One man in his fifties was hit by a falling chimney and is now in a serious condition in the intensive care unit in Christchurch Hospital.

Another man in his fifties has serious injuries after being cut by glass in the earthquake.

The Director of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, John Hamilton, said the National Crisis Management Centre has been activated to co-ordinate central government response if required.

RESIDENTS' CONCERN

Colleen Simpson, from Christchurch, said everyone was out in the street in their pyjamas after the quake hit, looking scared and worried. There was no power, buildings were down and the mobile network was failing.

"Oh my God. There is a row of shops completely demolished right in front of me," she said, from her car.

Simpson and her young family were heading to her sister's house, where there was still power, so everyone could be together.

INFRASTRUCTURE DAMAGE

About five per cent of buildings in central Christchurch have been damaged and streets are littered with the rubble of building facades.

Many minor bridges have been damaged but all major bridges and road transport routes are okay. The surface of Avonside Drive, in eastern Christchurch, has a huge crack across it.

The rail network has been shutdown as inspections are made. Christchurch Airport has also been closed as a precaution but there is no early suggestion of damage.

The Fire Service has divided the city into grids and is sending staff into each area to assess the damage.
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Residents have been asked not to drive into the central city.

All Canterbury emergency coordination centres - including Selwyn, Timaru, Waimakariri and Hurunui districts - have been activated.

Civil Defence is asking residents in those areas not to use their cellphones unless for emergencies. And people have been warned that cellphone coverage could fall out later today.

A spokesperson for lines company Orion said sewer lines and water pipes have ruptured, and whole substations are offline. Power is off to 75 percent of Christchurch and all of rural Canterbury.

Power was expected to be restored to 90 percent of the city by nightfall, however there would be pockets where power would not be able to be restored due to damage.

Damage reports for rural areas were yet to be done, the spokesperson said.

Residents have been urged to conserve water.

There have been reports of looting in central Christchurch following the quake.

Inspector Mike Coleman said police had cordoned off central Christchurch as it was dangerous but also because looters had already been active.

''There's considerable damage there, and we've already had reports of looting,'' he told Radio New Zealand.

''Shop windows are broken and obviously it's easy pickings for displays and things.''

Additional police staff had been sent out to patrol the city streets.

Police said damage and power outages have been reported from as far away as Dunedin.

The rail network in the South Island has been shut down while it is inspected for damage.

HEALTH CARE

Christchurch Hospital's emergency department has also seen a number of people with minor injuries - mainly cuts and bruises, but also some broken bones.

Canterbury District Health Board spokeswoman Michele Hider said they were still assessing damage to hospitals and still experiencing after shocks

People who need medical assistance for minor injuries they should go the 24 Hour after hours surgery in Bealey Ave.

She asked people not to go to Christchurch Hospital's Emergency Department unless it is an emergency.

St John Ambulance said services were fully functioning but urged medical alarm users not to activate them unless they were injured or unwell.

CITY RESPONSE

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker, speaking from the city's emergency centre, said City Care staff were trying to assess damage and clear roads where they could.

Extra staff were manning a phone line for the public to call in reports of damage 03-941 8999.

There were reports coming in of damage in the suburbs around Christchurch, as well as the coastal suburbs, he said.

"There is a lot of damage that I've been able to observe, mainly of old brick and masonry buildings".

He said people should check on their neighbours and there had been reports of minor injuries.

"I understand it's been very busy at Christchurch Hospital's emergency department this morning," he told Radio NZ

PhiliousPhogg

It woke me up in Wellington, thought it would be a five point something here but then I checked the net. Was worried about a stronger one.

I think there's a big difference between 7.4 and 7.1, wonder why they reported 7.4. Hopefully no fatalities. Doesn't seem like whole buildings have collapsed or people are buried under rubble, so far.

watna

My OH woke up in Wellington too. He heard things in the kitchen vibrate and also went online this morning thinking it was a 5 point one in Wellington. Got a text from a friend who is in Christchurch for the weekend saying the floors were rolling and the doors shook for 10 minutes. Really crazy stuff.

The pictures on stuff.co.nz are amazing. It says serious injuries but no fatalities (yet).

Scary stuff. I've checked our earthquake kit this morning already.

deaddonkey

I was awake (late shift at work) in gisborne and felt nothing.
Hope everyone down canterbury is alright

watna

deaddonkey wrote: »

I was awake (late shift at work) in gisborne and felt nothing.
Hope everyone down canterbury is alright

Me too. Hope Crumble Froo checks in soon. She's in Cch

pclancy

I'm amazed more arent injured or dead. We are so so lucky that wasnt right underneath Wellington.

watna

pclancy wrote: »

I'm amazed more arent injured or dead. We are so so lucky that wasnt right underneath Wellington.

Well, they keep saying it's going to happen any day. So much of Wellington is on stilts or perched on hills. Christchurch is flat. You know it would have much worse if it were here.

Does anyone remember that programme on TV1 about an earthquake hitting Wellington? It was on about two years ago and was a drama depicting what would happen. I wasn't in NZ long and I was terrified afterwards!

jank

Hope everyone is ok! Got to ring my boss ( and his team, they are based in CHCH) and see if its OK. The server room is probably fubared, busy few weeks for them so....! Might have to fly over to help!

For some reason I always miss this stuff!

Claasman

Cant get through to anyone i know there, does anyone know if the telecom or vodafone network is working?

xp90

Holy christ!!




no pun intended

davepatr07

Of all the days in the year (or nights in this case) My flight is cancelled from Welly to Christchurch this morning. Hoping tomorrow the airport will be reopen as I'm rebooked on a flight. Supposed to go to Glaciers and do a bit of skiing Appears the runways are ok just the terminal got a bit of shakin. Didn't feel a thing last night in the Hutt though when I was last in Christchurch back in Feb there was a tremor only 3 or 4 on the Richter.

Rabies

Claasman wrote: »

Cant get through to anyone i know there, does anyone know if the telecom or vodafone network is working?

mobile networks were to go down a few hours ago in the area. Power was cut to them and they were running on reserve power.

jank

I can confirm that. Mobile networks were running on reserve battery power and were due to run out some hours back. They wont be back up until general power is restored and I have no idea when that is. Not sure about land lines though they are generally more resistant to this stuff as the exchanges usually have a generator of some sort and phones are 'powered' from the exchange.

PhiliousPhogg

Looks like someone's been busy on wikipedia.

earnyourturns

Woke me up in Dunedin as well - took me a minute to work out why it felt like I was in a waterbed and the room was rolling...

C0N0R

Is this common?? Headin to chch in october. Hope the people I am going to are good, there west of chch I think.

ToniTuddle

I guess it would be better to leave messages on Facebook rather than try and text people if the phone lines are down...?

Was there any damage done to any of the smaller towns outside of Christchurch???

pclancy

Power back to 90% and water to 20%. Still no reports of any deaths. Amazing luck!

Still lots of aftershocks and hopefully the bad weather doesnt hamper things too much today.

Shzm

A good image showing just how much the earth moved..



Apologies for the size!

robinph

They had a clip of a train stopped just before the track went extremely wiggly on BBC News whilst the commentary said something understated like "Railway tracks have also been effected".

brendansmith

robinph wrote: »

They had a clip of a train stopped just before the track was affected on BBC News whilst the commentary said something overstated like "Railway tracks have also been extremely wiggly ".

Fixed it

WindSock

Some good pics here

http://www.crashbang.co.nz/quake040910/index.html?ref=nf

ToniTuddle

WindSock wrote: »

Some good pics here

http://www.crashbang.co.nz/quake040910/index.html?ref=nf

Some of those photos are awesome :eek: Like the one with the blue/white bridge twisted up.

I recognise some of the buildings and streets from the time I was there....madness!

So far only one mate out there has had damage done to their house with the chimney feiced and the roof and walls cracked. Haven't heard back from few of the others.

pclancy

Nervous now. I felt a little one today in work. Was in a storeroom with loads of PCs and IT gear on racks and everything all moved at once like in one swift jolt then stopped. Hopefully thats enough for now

GalwayKiefer

Is it true they have soldiers on the streets at night imposing a curfew because of a certain amount of looting going on? I was there back in '08, absolutely loved the place.

pclancy

There were people looting some bottle stores and shops early on but its stopped now due to plenty of cops around the cbd and some soldiers.

Crumble Froo

hey guys. sorry i took so long to get on and check in, but am currently homeless

among the photos on the link windsock had, is nextdoor to my house, The Gloryhole as it is commonly known (we used to be a venue too).

the guy who lived in there moved out less than a week ago.
our house doesnt look so bad on the outside, but the inside's ****ed, cracks and plaster everywhere they shouldnt be, bathroom's just about fallen in, lost a chunk of wall on the side attached to the one in the picture there, the whole backyard's just rubble, as is the side area, and the toilet things out back are pretty ****ed too. got yellow ticketed on saturday, meaning highly restricted use of the building, but on sunday they put a red one on it, we're not allowed in at all now

check this video out, one of our mates did it, around about 1.40 he comes round to our house, he's about the only person who got footage of the inside and back of the house.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAZ-qAy-vZQ


this link here uses a picture of us to accompany the headline.... im the one in the green hoody with a bike.
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/full-coverage/7890724/city-residents-tentatively-return-belongings/


tonituddle, by towns outside christchurch, do you mean suburbs or actual towns? i think rangiora's mostly ok, but entire streets in kaiapoi are ****ed, and the epicentre was just outside darfield, which as far as i know is ****ed too (but of course, we've no homes at the moment, so we've seen **** all news, etc).

there's soldiers on the streets, keeping places cordoned off, making sandbags up out of the silt, duno what else they're doing tbh.

**** guys, we'd only just about gone to bed less than 10mins before the quake, half asleep, hear this massive noise, my flatmates (and mates, had a few people round) shouting, hear sentences like 'the wall's just come in' , still half asleep and wasn't processing any of it till my boyfriend shouted to me that my rat was on the floor, his cage had been knocked over and he was freaking. the bird was lost for a little while, but found, the cat's still missing, the bricked up window at the side of our house fell in when the wall next door fell into it, sadly that was around our stairs, were really ****ing dodgy to get down and out, we lost our water straight away, but power stayed till civil defence cut off next doors'.

went back the next day to get our stuff, and were halfway through getting it when civil defence red-ticketed teh building and wouldnt let us back in. yeah. im still dazed. our house is gone, most of our stuff's gone, we've nowhere to live, but for most people it's all normal again. i usually stay quite calm when it's just my little group of mates, we can all panic together and sort our **** out, but there's been sirens going non-stop, which are always a horrible reminder that just everything's falling apart outside, and pictures in the papers too. horrible

Zambia

Jesus words fail me froo. Glad you and yours are not hurt. Really dont know what to say.

jank

Glad your OK Crumble! Speaking to my boss the place is a bit like the twilight zone. Some streets are grand then you turn the corner and you see its fcuked! Hardly anyone in the office because schools closed, no water etc, then the pie guy comes around at 10:30 on the button selling his pies and sandwiches...all a bit surreal!

WindSock

Sorry to hear you got affected so much by it, Crumble. Not nice to feel like you are living in limbo with all your stuff gone. Hopefully you can get sorted soon and back on your feet.

ToniTuddle

Crumble Froo wrote: »

hey guys. sorry i took so long to get on and check in, but am currently homeless

check this video out, one of our mates did it, around about 1.40 he comes round to our house, he's about the only person who got footage of the inside and back of the house.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAZ-qAy-vZQ


tonituddle, by towns outside christchurch, do you mean suburbs or actual towns? i think rangiora's mostly ok, but entire streets in kaiapoi are ****ed, and the epicentre was just outside darfield,
the cat's still missing,

Your cat probably legged it once the walls started going and stuff. Hopefully she turns up or ends up in a safe place.

Soo sorry that this has happened to you, just once you had got settled as well!! :mad::(

Yeah Haven't heard back from few of ones in Rangiora. Alot have moved to different locations. No bloody credit in phone must get some and ring them.

It's obviously too dangerous to go inside your house and get stuff....when they come to clear it all will you be able to collect any of your belongings then?

In the video at 3:23 you can see right inside an upstairs building and their is loads of Irish flags it looks like a bar? Do you know which one that is? Think the tumbled road sign says Manchester street in the video I know few of the bars down there.

Such madness!! How many was living with you? Is there any other people yous could possibly crash with?:(