Earthquake - Christchurch residents have HAD ENOUGH!!!

We take so much for granted in the UK, and we don't have to deal with physical disasters like earthquakes!

Now 'old news', spare a thought for some people here who have lost their homes and all of their possessions. 

Insurance premiums have either doubled or cover isn't even available any more.

Over the past five months,  people in Christchurch have been under considerable stress  as a result of the constant aftershocks. 

The latest quake on February 22 seems to have been the final straw for many. Much of the central city is destroyed and there has been an exodus from Christchurch. 

Those that remain are burdened with the clean up and the costs: financial, material and emotional.

To add insult to injury, the recent extreme weather conditions caused the 2 Christchurch Exam days to be cancelled/postponed and it's caused additional anxiety for some people who have to make various arrangements in order to attend at their allotted time. An unexpected situation, but completely understandable if you could see the devastation here! Now we have to see how it might be possible to re-arrange to another time during an already timetabled tour! A future weekend off is likely to be used to allow the candidates to do their exam, but these guys deserve a break so that's just what we'll do!

The February 2011 Christchurch earthquake was a magnitude 6.3 quake that struck the Cantebury area in New Zealand's South Island at 12:51 pm on Tuesday, 22 February 2011 local time. The video beneath is just a couple of minutes long and was posted up onto Simon Lightbody's FB site (cheers Si - see you soonish!) it's in a builder's merchants & spans the time of the main shock . . .  

The earthquake was centred 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) west of the town of Lyttleton, and 10 kilometres (6 mi) south-east of the centre of Christchurch, New Zealand's 2nd most populous city.

{Mike - the manager of the motel I'm writing from http://www.lorenzomotorlodge.co.nz/ told me about this  site: http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/ which is excellent for watching the 'time-lapse' sequence of 189 quakes that took place on Feb 22nd - or you can even go back to see the Sept 4th, or other, events. There were 3 quakes today!}
 

 {Watch for future photo uploads}

It followed nearly six months after the 7.1 magnitude 4th Sept 2010 Canterbury earthquake, which caused significant damage to Christchurch and the central Canterbury region, but no direct fatalities.

The earthquake caused widespread damage across Christchurch, especially in the central city and eastern suburbs, with damage exacerbated by buildings and infrastructure already being weakened by the 4 September 2010 earthquake and its aftershocks. Significant liquefaction affected the eastern suburbs, producing around 400,000 tonnes of silt. The earthquake was reported to be felt across the South Island and the lower and central North Island.

In total, 181 people were killed in the earthquake, making it the second-deadliest natural disaster recorded in New Zealand (after the 1931 Hawke's Bay quake), and 4th deadliest disaster of any kind recorded in New Zealand. Nationals from more than 20 countries were among the victims. 

The New Zealand Government declared a state of national emergency, which stayed in force until 30 April 2011.

It has been estimated that the total cost of rebuilding to insurers to be around NZ$15–16 billion {~£7-8 billion} making it by far New Zealand's costliest natural disaster, and the third-costliest earthquake (nominally) worldwide.

There's even debate now as to whether or not it's going to be economically viable to rebiuld the CBD [Central Business District] since businesses may be reluctant to return there in the future.  

The earthquake was followed up by a large aftershock on June 13th 20101 which caused considerable additional damage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2011_Christchurch_earthquake