NZ Earthquake

[Foxdana]

Search and rescue teams are going to work through the night searching for survivors of the powerful earthquake that has killed 65 people in Christchurch.

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker says that the death toll from the 6.3 magnitude quake could possibly double as emergency services make their way deeper within collapsed buildings.

Rescue workers will attempt to free some of the over 100 people who remain stuck in buildings throughout the South Island city.

This evening witnesses could still hear screams coming from the Pyne Gould Guinness building, where it is feared dozens of people remain trapped.

Civil Defence director John Hamilton says: "There could well be people who are stuck in buildings overnight. I can't confirm, but I would expect that's in all probability the case".

"We have to be prepared to accept that it is going to be a heavy toll," he said.

Some of those killed were believed to have been travelling in two buses which were crushed by falling buildings, TVNZ said.

A witness saw the facade of a building collapse on a bus on Colombo St.

"There's people dead. [They're] pulling them out of a bus," the witness told the New Zealand Herald newspaper.

Live television pictures showed residents of the South Island city emerging from destroyed CBD buildings in tears and shaking.

Many screamed as apparent aftershocks dislodged large pieces of the badly damaged Christchurch Cathedral, which sits on the edge of the city's main square.

The spire of the cathedral collapsed on to the street, and television pictures showed at least one person was still inside the building.

A priest told TV3 he feared people were trapped in the rubble.

"It's just huge, it is huge," he said.

"We just don't know if there are people under that rubble. I fear there are."

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/821...s-christchurch

[redred]

New Zealand earthquake: 65 dead in Christchurch
New Zealand's prime minister says at least 65 people have died after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit Christchurch.
John Key said the toll was expected to rise further, adding: "We may be witnessing New Zealand's darkest day."
The tremor caused widespread damage as it occurred at lunchtime when Christchurch was at its busiest, at a shallow depth of 5km (3.1 miles).
The mayor of New Zealand's second-biggest city says at least 200 people are believed trapped under rubble.
The country's deadliest natural disaster in 80 years struck at 1251 (2351 GMT on Monday), 10km (6.2 miles) south-east of the city.
Screams from rubble
The damage is said to be far worse than after the 7.1-magnitude quake on 4 September, which left two people seriously injured but no fatalities.
That quake's epicentre was further away from the city and deeper underground, but still caused an estimated $3bn (£1.9bn) in damage.
TV pictures of the aftermath of Tuesday's disaster showed scores of collapsed buildings in the South Island city of nearly 400,000 people.
People could be seen wandering the rubble-strewn streets in distress.
Police said that among the dead were people on two buses which had been crushed by falling buildings.
Helicopters have been used to put out fires caused by the quake.
Officials said up to 30 people were feared still trapped inside the Pyne Gould Guinness building, where screams have been heard from beneath the wreckage.
'Warzone'
Local television showed bodies being pulled out of rubble.
Christchurch Cathedral, an iconic stone building in the centre of the city, was partly destroyed, its spire toppling into the square below.
Concrete in Victoria Square had risen at least a metre in some places and there are signs of liquefaction around the Avon river, RNZ added.
Power and telephone lines were knocked out, and pipes burst, flooding the streets with water.
The suburbs of Lyttleton and New Brighton are reportedly "unliveable".
Aftershocks
As night-time approached, emergency shelters were set up in the city's Hagley Park, a race course and schools.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker told the BBC: "We're beginning to get a feeling, from what we've got so far, that a significant number of people are injured and a significant number of people are still trapped in buildings.
"And as we get further into that rescue operation... clearly we're going to be presented with statistics that are going to be bleak."
PM John Key said: "It is just a scene of utter devastation. We have to work as fast as we can to get people out of environments where they are trapped.
"This is a community that is absolutely in agony. We just need this community, as it has done before and as it will do again, to come together, to check and support one another," he added.
The military has been deployed to help the rescue effort, and the government has accepted an offer of specialist help from Australia.
Two large magnitude-5 aftershocks have already rattled the stricken city, and officials warned residents to brace for more.
One Christchurch resident, Jaydn Katene, told the New Zealand Herald: "We've had friends in town call us and say there are just bodies lying around; lots of dead bodies outside shops just lying there just covered in bricks."
A British backpacker said the city "looked like a bomb had hit it".
New Zealand lies at the southern end of the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, and above an area of the Earth's crust where the Pacific Plate converges with the Indo-Australian Plate.
The country experiences more than 14,000 earthquakes a year, of which only around 20 have a magnitude in excess of 5.0.
The last fatal earthquake was in 1968, when a 7.1-magnitude tremor killed three people on the South Island's western coast.
Tuesday's tremor was the country's worst natural disaster since a 1931 quake in the North Island city of Napier killed 256 people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12533291

[Foxdana]

Thanks Red, you always get the stories better than we do!

[redred]

no problem i had it ready and then saw you're thread , that whole area seems to be taking a rough deal from the weather ,what with the floods in oz

[Foxdana]

You're right of course!! Got to wonder what's really happening?! The earth's gone mad!!

[redred]

building up for 2012

[Foxdana]

Yep! Gotta almost believe it with all the craziness!

[Godfather]

You goofballs... 2012



That's crazy... we have some NZ posters don't we I guess you didn't feel it Dana? 6.3 is huge and you're not really that far away

[Foxdana]

No, didn't get shakes here! We are quite a distance away! I don't know if we have any New Zealand members! But the story is on the news constantly down here!

[Southern Belle]

Here too.

[Hal-9000]

I hope there's not more loss of life.....pulling people out of buses crushed under rubble....thoughts are with the folks down there