[Voltswagen]

Reuters is reporting that a 7.4 magnitude earthquake has hit New Zealand near Christ Church.
I hope Gav and all our Kiwi Members are OK.

[david85]

Me too.

Karlos, Duncan, Gavin?

You guys ok?

[Duncan]

We are OK down here,
Woke me up at 4,30am but no damage

Christchurch has been hit worst - No deaths but a few injuries from falling masonry

-Good thing almost everybody was in bed!

There are few multistory buildings in NZ - mostly concentrated in the city centers

New buildings have strict code requirements - we will now see how well that worked!

Most of the damage seems to have been old stone/brick buildings

See how long it takes to get power back

The sewers and water have been hit quite hard
Christchurch is built on an old swamp so it is prone to liquefaction
Which means a lot of pipes have moved - will need to be moved back

We will see how long it takes to get it all fixed

[Woodsmith]

Good to hear there were no deaths, I hope it stays that way.

The news here is that there is an extra 11' of Earth there now.

[HighTech]

Glad to hear everyone is alright there. I have another friend in Indonesia near the volcano there and I have been telling her for years to prepare for any natural disaster because anything can happen. If it isn't a flood, tornado, hurricane, then its an earthquake or economic crash. Goodness, things keep happening faster and faster, but in all if people are prepared with some sort of back up of food, water filters (or plastic bag to make a water still), extra pair of clothes and a temporary shelter (tent) in a ruck sack (or backpack) they can make it till help arrives or till they find a different place to rest their heads. After I heard about the News I thought oh goodness, its going to be another Katrina or China incident all over again. Lucky it was just surface damage and nobody was killed. So what a relief that was to know it wasn't as bad as it could have been. However, flooding is pretty bad down in the Southern US from what the News has been showing. Glad I live on top of a mountain, if I ever get flooded then I know its really bad. =) If anyone is interested in any type of preparedness, I have been reading through a few websites that have some helpful tips and great survival tips for any kind of disaster. Hope it is ok to post these since there is nothing to sell on these, just free information to all. http://www.bsoscblog.com/forum/ And another wilderness survival (which has everything about survival in it too for even rural and city people). http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...splay.php?f=2&

[karlos]

Originally Posted by david85

Me too.

Karlos, Duncan, Gavin?

You guys ok?

Thanks for the thoughts guys. Fortunately for me, I live in the top 1/4 of the North Island which does not get earthquakes. You might find this video interesting which compresses 6 months of earthquake activity prior to the big one! Where the earthquake was, is very near the big bump in the middle of the East Coast of the South Island.
It's a bit too exciting living on or near a fault line...