Alan in New Zealand

[RICH MUISE]

Alstoy...hope everything with you is ok after the earthquake..I was looking at your old posts to find out where in New Zealand you lived, but couldn't find any reference...I know the earthquake was around Christchurch. I do know there apparently were no fatalaties so that was real good news.

[alstoy]

Thanks for thinking of us down here. I live in the North Island so although it was felt here, there was no impact. Christchurch, on the East Coast of the South Island, is New Zealand's second biggest city and one of the oldest with a lot of late 1800's english buildings. The images you see in TV are mostly the facades of the older city buildings. The impact is right across the city and its surrounding rural area's. The fact that there were no deaths is mostly due to 2 reasons, 4.30am in the morning meant most people were in bed and not on the street or at work/school etc. The other reason is New Zealand's very strict building codes. The Country has a lot of smaller earthquakes, a bit like California, and every now and then we get a big one. It was our turn this time.

We are a very resiliant people and although those directly effected are in for a tough time, the whole country will rally around and assist with the rebuild.

Again thanks for the thought.

[2drhrdtp57]

Well it was a beauty I can say that, we were all very lucky that's for sure, the fact it occurred at 4.35 in the morning for sure went a long way to prevent any fatalities or major injuries.

Our town is a mess and a lot of remedial work underway, but there is a long road ahead to get back to where we were. There has been over 1000 aftershocks and they have been as high as 5.4 many over 3.5 they have finished off some of the homes, and settled the land again, a lot of homes with damaged foundations and utility damage to repair.

As Al said we are pretty resilient down here and will rise again.

[RICH MUISE]

Glad to hear you're ok. I had forgotten we had two new zealanders on our site, particularly one being in Christchurch. Hope you're '57 faired as well..although you have a tendency to put things in perspective when a major crisis hits home.   Rich