Felt any good earthquakes recently?

What a tragedy. Our hearts go out to the people in Christchurch. The last several months have not been kind. Now this.

 

WOW! I've never seen such devastation.

 

Hi lj50, thanks for your worry. We are in the North Island of New Zealand (Wellington) and although our city is considered the earthquake center and has major fault lines passing through it, we have not felt the shocks that have devasted Christchurch.
Even while rescue workers are trying to recover trapped people, the area is getting hit by aftershocks of 4+ magnitude. (15 at last count).
These quakes have such disastrous ongoing effects: electricity knocked out, water supplies burst, sewerage/waste damaged, gas supplies leaking, roads cracked and thrust upwards - you name it!
Electricity can't be reconnected until gas leaks are sealed.
Water has to be trucked in by tankers and you can't bathe or flush toilets.
Our heart felt thoughts go out to all in the Canterbury area of the South Island and to those who have lost loved ones. Neil.

 

Marty popped in at BT to let us know he was okay. He said that he just got his PC back online and was able to power up his TV to catch up on what was happening. His house didn't receive any structural damage. Marty said the quake felt more like 8.5 then 6.3.

 

Yeah, got 3 e-mails from him and 1 from KeithLDick saying Marty was OK.

 

Whiskeyman, the reason the quake felt like an 8.5 was due to the fact that it was nearer the surface (5km) and this causes higher ground acceleration which relates to shaking more than upheaval.

The aftershocks have been occurring regularly while rescue and recovery teams are doing their best to locate missing people. This is REAL scary.

Liquifaction is the biggest problem in Christchurch as watery sand oozes up out of the ground and swallows cars which have been abandoned on the roads.

Many thanks must go out to all the Countries around the world who have responded with Rescue/Recovery Teams in NZ's dire time.
We're only a small Nation, but all of the Country is affected by this disaster. Neil.