NOMADICISTA

There was an earthquake down the road from dusty this morning, reported to be between 7.1 and 7.4



I'll add another couple of photo's shortly.

These are from central Christchurch this morning.

Have you heard from him

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4094986 ... ristchurch

Looks like they don't have electricity, so Dusty probably doesn't have contact with the outside yet.

OK , so that was a good one

Coastal areas have suffered some extensive liquification with houses sinking a bit and roads and footpaths breaking up.

Several local bridges are unusable and it seems the infrastructure, water/sewerage is in a serious mess.

I went for a walk around Kaiapoi and it will take months to cleanup the immediate effects , and who knows how long to deal with the subsided houses .

Many of the old houses with brick chimneys are stuffed now.

I will post a couple of pics later.

ps, bus rocked like a launch in a storm

Here is a link to some pics.

http://www.crashbang.co.nz/quake040910/index.html

That seems to be the most favored building for photographs. Wonder if the prayer flags helped the occupants. Also wonder what exactly is holding up the ceiling and roof???

I think all of this is a very good lesson in how poorly brick structures survive earthquakes.

Back in 1974, when I had just purchased the truck that would become my Housetruck, I was watching news coverage of the big earthquake in Nicaragua, many images of similarly collapsed buildings. I made the comment that my home would soon have a resilient foundation so that it was earthquake-proof. About that time, the camera caught the image of a big truck similar to mine laying on it's side. Ooops.

It's a lot of cleanup, and I'm sure that many people's lives will be disrupted, but overall, it might have been a lot worse. Glad to know that you rode it out in style.

Hello Dusty, happy that you are able to post.

At the very least, earthquakes are rude and more than that, can be terrible. The pictures that I have seen remind me of the one that hit Paso Robles, California in late 2003. Buildings that were supported by brick or had brick facades fared poorly. My last bad experience with a shaker was in 1987. Our house looked as if it had been ransacked by thieves. Although the Northridge quake (17 January 1994) was more intense, it was far enough away that it caused no major damage here (Bellflower, California).

I will be keeping a close eye on what is going on in New Zealand (BBC and Duetch Welle news).

Take care / Tom (aka TMAX)

Earthquakes??? Yes, they are scary. I watched my brother's house implode in the 1989 Loma Prieta quake in California.

Dusty, Stuartcnz, ... all our friends in New Zealand ...
Glad you made it through, that's a big one. If it had been Hawaii they might have lost half the Big Island ... major rift waiting for the right trigger to slide.
Keep posting, tell us if you need anything ...
GoodClue

Lovely sunny day in the aftermath. Storm predicted in a couple of days. No surprise there.

Couple of pics locally.

Rumble strips;



Rail challenge;

I found a link to another bunch of pics , taken by a local .

Lots of evidence of liquification etc. some great shots there.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32444582@N ... 874841322/

If this Earthquake occured in Southern Cali ( where I live ) you would have seen a lot more devastation , the Donalds golf course on the P.V. peninsula might have fallen into the ocean......