KIWIS, REPORT IN!

[Tupac]

Theres some fairly horrific images coming out, so I though I'd share this instead...

(Image removed from quote.)

Lol

[Vulcan]

View of the city just after the quake hit:

[Vulcan]

One of the big problems is liquefaction:

[1pLUs44]

Prayers are with anyone involved in this disaster. 

[Ripsnort]

Here's to hope for those that survived.
Man, that was a shallow one Vulcan, no wonder there was liquification. Only 3 miles deep! 

[Vulcan]

Talking to my family down there the quake was so violent it was impossible to flee. My mother was in the laundry of her house, a small room, yet she could not get her hands to the door handle. Heavy tables, desks, and reception desks that weight 100's of Kg's have been tossed around like toys. It sounds like those that ducked under desks survived, those that made for exits suffered the worst.

You kind of imagine running for the door in these events, it's hard to imagine not being able too like what has happened.

There are 6 major zones where buildings have fallen over or pancaked that they are now in 'recovery' mode.

The city is ruined, even though buildings still stand they are unsafe. Infrastructure is ruined (roads, water, sewage), and worse still the people are deeply psychologically scarred... they've had constant aftershocks since the big 7.1 in Sept last year. They'd just got over that then this happens. Many are leaving the city for good.

I'm now starting too see names I know appear on the list of casualties (I grew up there til my mid-teens, I spent my youth cycling all around that beautiful city). NZ is not a big country, and Christchurch is not a huge city, so it's a case of everyone knows someone lost in the quake

[EskimoJoe]

Truly saddening, Vulcan..
If I could lend a hand I would have been down there already..

A farewell to those who have passed this life behind 

[Babalonian]

Lol at the busted grow operation, talk about being put out and into the open.  Hope they let the guy(s) off light, at least they brought a chuckle/laugh to everyone on an otherwise deby downer of a day... and all without actual consumption, zing.

Reminds me of the Northridge quake here in LA when I was a young teen, this one seems a bit worse because it was measurabley shallower.  The aftershocks will be the worse, and I'm not talking about the ones since the quake.  The random 5._ that will hit outa the blue once every month or two for the next year or two are the worse since you'll be resuming normal life only to experience the quake again while shopping at the super market or the hardware store (both places I personaly don't recomend being during a 5.0+ quake or aftershock coming down from a major quake tragedy).

I'm certian they'll rebuild, best of luck and prayers to them, it'll hopefuly be a distant memory in a couple years.

[Vulcan]

Doctors had to either use a hacksaw and Swiss army knife to amputate a trapped man's legs or leave him to die.

After five hours of crawling through the pancaked Pyne Gould Corporation building on Tuesday, Dr Stuart Philip, 38, came across another survivor. But this time, the rubble could not be lifted and the man's trapped lower legs had to be cut off.

"There really wasn't any other option. Essentially the procedure was performed with a Swiss army knife. A builder arrived with a hacksaw. I know that sounds terrible, but that's all we had, " the Brisbane-based urologist said yesterday.

Another urologist performed the operation as she could squeeze in next to the man. She was traumatised and had since travelled back to Australia, he said.

An anesthetist was on hand to administer pain relief, but not enough to dull the agony.

[Vulcan]

Casualty count is at 113, there are 3 sites each with 90, 22, and 14 bodies believed to be recovered so it's likely we'll hit 250-300 total.

[Ripsnort]

Talking to my family down there the quake was so violent it was impossible to flee. My mother was in the laundry of her house, a small room, yet she could not get her hands to the door handle. Heavy tables, desks, and reception desks that weight 100's of Kg's have been tossed around like toys. It sounds like those that ducked under desks survived, those that made for exits suffered the worst.

You kind of imagine running for the door in these events, it's hard to imagine not being able too like what has happened.

My first *big* quake in 2001, I was at work on the 3rd floor of an office building, and did NOT do the right thing, headed for the stairwell when a 6.1 quake hit. It's instinctive.
Fortunately that quake was 10 miles deep and no one was killed though we had some structural cracks on our building. I learned my lesson. Next time, I'm diving UNDER something.

[SPKmes]

I've been chatting to a friend down there who works for a Hotel as a maintenance guy...it is his job at the moment to clear away the silt ???  what ever it is from the liquefaction...He says it's the strangest stuff...to touch it feels solid, enough that you have to shovel it...when it is in the wheel barrow, it moves like a concrete mix...but when you go to tip it out it won't and you have to shovel it out.

 

[Vulcan]

I've been chatting to a friend down there who works for a Hotel as a maintenance guy...it is his job at the moment to clear away the silt ???  what ever it is from the liquefaction...He says it's the strangest stuff...to touch it feels solid, enough that you have to shovel it...when it is in the wheel barrow, it moves like a concrete mix...but when you go to tip it out it won't and you have to shovel it out.

Yeah thats the liquefaction at work, agitating it makes it more fluid. Like the cars that drove into it one the day of the quake, then later it solidified.

[Rash]

Awful stuff.  It's terrible to see.

Rash

[M0nkey_Man]

Hope everything goes ok