7.4 magnitude quake in New Zealand

[Rus-Evo]

This sounds a bit scary, Im sure there are still many buildings down there built before earthquake standards.

7.4 quake in Christchurch

[clovnul]

Some years ago one of 6+ scared me out in the night. I don't want to know how is the 7th. My parents caught one of 7+.

[Rus-Evo]

Ive been 70kms from a 6.3.....and those babies can ROCK!!

[Rus-Evo]

No serious injuries reported yet.

[Rus-Evo]

This isnt Haiti, its has hit a country that is ready for earthquakes, and Christchurch is know as being the best organized big city in New Zealand. I would hope that they are as good at handling this as any place out there.

My cousin is living there right now.

[revngo]

Sounds scary Rus
Living in the UK its hard to imagine how living in a "quake" country is - we do get small quakes here occasionally but usually they are in the Midlands (Birmingham area). Living some 100 miles North of that area, I've never experienced one.
I hope your relation is ok and the city copes with the quake.

[Rus-Evo]

My relation is OK and says Christchurch has been "destroyed"....she always was melodramatic!!

[Mach]

No serious injuries reported yet.

Good

[Rus-Evo]

There is one serious injury (chimney landed on a guy), and one more in ICU. No deaths.

Liquifaction caused sludgy mud to come out of the ground in same places....like a flood was there.

[Rus-Evo]

Also its only a 7.0 now magnitude.

[PURIST]

Thank God no one died. Good to hear your family members and relatives are all fine, Rus. 7.0 still scares me. I hope it won't hit Australia. Planet Earth must be angry to produce so many earthquakes and volcanic activities these days. I don't think bulidings in Sydney are designed to stand earthquakes.

[Rus-Evo]

I dont think they are either Purist, but remember a lot of buildings in NZ were built before earthquake standards kicked in, it appears that these are the ones that fell over.

But your average wooden house (which 90% of kiwis live in) can take a hell of a quake, and at 4.35am that is where most people were.........many deaths would have happened if it had struck whilst people were at work.

[Rus-Evo]

Gonna be 120kph winds and heavy rain there tonight!

[MissFinn]

Our paper said at that big NZ hasn't seen in 80 years.
Glad at hardly any human damage.
Damn looter's, specially at that picture where Jewelery shop is.

[Sivakis]

My wife was caught in the big earthquake in Taiwan in 2002, so yeah, she can relate definitely to the 7.0 in NZ. She watched as big cracks spread across her hotel room wall and they all ran out in their pajamas. I'm glad she survived that.

My heart goes out to the New Zealanders - have friends who are from there. May they recover soon from this disaster.

[Mach]

We had one in Toronto on June 23, 2010. The USGS reports the quake had a magnitude of 5.0....staff colleagues who were higher than the second floor were panicing. I did'nt feel a thing in the IT hardware room - ground floor. Anyway, it covered the area from Chicago to Boston to Toronto....

[Rus-Evo]

My heart goes out to the New Zealanders - have friends who are from there. May they recover soon from this disaster.

Thanks. The damage will cost 2 billion bucks. Meanwhile there are 6 billion bucks sitting in overseas accounts set aside for earthquake rebuilding. So the economy (oddly) will get a needed boost. Anyone who had home and contents insurance is entitled to 100,000NZD (thats about 75,000 USD) for re building, their insurance should cover the rest. There may have been a heart attack death.......but the main death is that of a Lemur in Christchurch zoo, it died trying to cross its moat in panic. The other Lemurs are coping.

[Ferrari]

Nature is extremely powerful... Hope you can ride the storm out..

[Rus-Evo]

We are fine up here. But gale force winds and rain in non-weather tight buildings is going to cause havoc.

[Ferrari]

Time to anchor your car?

[Rus-Evo]

No the earthquake and weather are 700kms away on a different island!!!

[revngo]

Hmmm sounds like that was a pretty awful experience. Glad you and your friends/relatives are ok Rus. NZ is a strong country, they will soon recover from this disaster. Thankfully nobody was seriously injured or killed apart from the heart attack and the poor lemur
Good luck with the forthcoming bad weather

[WebHead]

You would think New Zealand with all its mountains would have more frequent earthquake activity.

[Sivakis]

About 6 months ago, my NZ colleague joked about earthquakes in NZ.... something about earthquakes weren't really worrying cos everyone lives so spread apart from each other and with so much empty land, hardly anyone would get hurt...... was funny then... not now.

[Mach]

International weather is showing all the flooding........WOW!!!