<TWL> The War Legends

Some of you may have heard of a earthquake here in new zealand.I am about 300km away (187 miles) so no effects here apart from the shaking when the main quake happened.
Friends of mine live there and there ha been no deaths but extensive damage to buildings,roads houses etc.Most of the area has no power or waterand surage and has been decleared a civil defence emergency and it seams to be going very well.
The only good thing about this is it happened at 4.30 am so people were in bed and not at work or on the roads.This could have made the situation very bad indeed.
Lets hope all the after shocks (every 15 minutes) dont bring much more damage and keep the people safe.

Paul, just saw the news on yahoo and came here to see if you had posted anything on it. Glad to hear that you're OK. Thnx for letting us know. I hope no one else there is seriously injured.

I live in Sacramento CA for 1 1/2 years and never experienced a quake there. Several years later I was living in OR and experienced two of them six months apart. In the first one I was on the 2nd floor at work and the building swayed for about 15 seconds, what a ride. The second time I was at home and felt a thump. After that I found the state geological site that showed the seismic activity. I hadn't known how active Oregon and Washington are before that.

Well the earthquake hit the area very hard and still no one has lost their life.The army (yes all 4 of them) have been called in and helping with the relief efforts.The city is locked down and buildings have caught fire when the power turned on and exploded ruptered gas lines.
On a totally different not on fox glacier a small plane crashed today killing 9 people as they took off to do a skydive.
The area and really all of new zealand is saddened by the earthquake and now our worst air crash in a long time.
I have been talking to a friend of mine in christchurch and they are averaging aftershocks every 15 to 30minutes and all above 4 on the scale.
To top it off tomorrow the area is going to be hit with heavy rain and 120kph winds.They have been warned loose trees and buildings weakened by the quake could fall with the wind.Lets hope this dosn't happen.

The aftershocks are getting more frequent.Here is a few links and look at the times they happen.
Scary stuff

http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/qua ... uakes.html

http://lists.geonet.org.nz/pipermail/eq ... hread.html

Stay Safe Paul!!!!!

So far there has been about 125 aftershocks down there.Wellington had 3 earthquakes and and 2 up north today so its a nerve wrecking time.Many buildings have been pulled down today and many more tomorrow.Severe wind and rain here last night closed a lot of main roads and flooding everywhere..When will it end.