On Feb 22, 2011, at 2:06 PM, Brian Walters wrote: > News here is that Christchurch was hit by another earthquake (6.3) a > couple of hours ago with lots of new damage. > > Dave - let us know how you're getting on when you get the chance.
Whew. Dodged a bullet. As Ann said, I work in town. I was on my lunch break at the time, returning to work along Manchester St. I think I was near the corner of Cashel St at the time. I can't begin to relate the shock of watching a building collapse just a block ahead, on the corner of Lichfield St. It made me keep a damn good eye on the buildings around me (I was in the middle of the road by then). After a moment I remembered that the collapsed building was unoccupied due to previous damage but if anyone was walking past they'd have been pretty messed up. I would have been there two minutes later. I got back to work and saw my colleagues who had evacuated. The building was still in fairly good shape. We quickly grabbed what we needed and went home. Glad I was on a bike as the roads were clogged and the traffic lights were out. Just heard on the radio, so far 65 confirmed dead. We just got into Janet's work where they have power and internet. Power went out for about 80% of the city. Our neighbourhood is a bit messy due to liquefaction, silt and water everywhere and it's caused a fair bit of damage to the roads. Much worse than the original quake. This one was closer and shallower so despite the smaller magnitude it has caused more damage. The roads are still usable but you need to be careful. It was a huge shake and we're getting regular tremors. The photos I've seen are actually fairly accurate: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4688231/Deaths-destruction-in-Christchurch-quake Looks like some historic buildings have been completely destroyed. The cathedral lost its spire and looks pretty bad. My house is OK, there's a little extra damage but it's quite messy inside with things that have fallen over. Our neighbour's chimney fell down, broke off at the bottom and came down in one piece. Our remaining chimney is still looking good, I don't know how as it's quite tall. I might post photos that I took from our neighbourhood some time later. I left the camera at home. My cellphone camera is broken so I wasn't able to get any pics from town, but really it doesn't matter. I don't think I need the graphic reminder right now. Cheers, Dave -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
