Another series of earthquakes struck Christchurch today, just a couple of days out from Christmas. The strongest measured 6.0. A city only slowly recovering its composure is traumatised again. Thankfully there are no reports of collapsed buildings or loss of life, but the sense of unreality is still acute, even for those of us at the other end of the country.
The nightmare began back in September 2010. Before then the city was regarded as relatively safe from seismic activity, unlike Wellington which sits along known fault lines. There were no deaths then either, despite fairly massive damage. That all changed in February this year when a killer quake struck snuffing out over one hundred and eighty lives and levelling much of the city centre.
The aftershocks have continued ever since. They take their toll, simply by wearing people down. Today's events will be the straw that broke the camel's back for many more Cantabrians. You can only stay staunch so long.
The folks in New Zealand are such good nice people and that makes the suffering so very sad.
ReplyDeleteI read some where long ago that the people in New Zealand were "the most sensible" or something like that with words to that effect because they had so many events in the country that nothing much ruffled them. It is impressive that the population is stable and sound in spite of seismic events (and lava flows, though I'm not certain of that).
The country is also beautiful. The inlaws to a WCG minister (John Comino (sp?)) showed us their slides of New Zealand and the country is absolutely gorgeous.
It's always a treat to learn of the local color from this blog.
Here's hoping that things improve as the earth makes it's little adjustments. It may not be much in the grander scheme of things, but I've been in a couple of major earthquakes which I would have done just as well to have missed and from the basis of my (last) experience can testify it's no fun.
Hey folks, be well; be safe.
Here's hoping the "adjustments" will end and the "shaking out" will come to a close so that everyone can be refreshed and encouraged.