4.9.10

Earthquake in New Zealand.

Early this morning, a 7.4 earthquake struck Christchurch, New Zealand. I've received e-mails from people checking on us, so I thought I’d write a quick post to let you know that we are OK. Thank you so much for your concern.

We live in a small coastal village up the coast from Wellington (in the North Island). Wellington is over 200 miles from Christchurch. I slept through the earthquake, but Adam said he felt it at about 4:30 a.m.

Christchurch is the second largest city in New Zealand. So far, no fatalities and only a couple of major injuries have been reported. There was quite a bit of damage to some buildings. Some people are still without power or water. But all in all, our nation was very lucky.

--
Edited to add. Reports are now indicating that the Christchurch earthquake was a 7.0 or a 7.1. It was still a huge quake! It is nothing short of miraculous that there were so few major injuries. Adam also wants me to tell you that there are lots and lots of earthquakes in New Zealand. There are four or five fault lines in Wellington. Every year we feel a few earthquakes. One day it will be the Big One. We're double-checking our disaster supplies. More than a little relieved that it wasn't us--this time.

13 comments:

Sanand said...

TV channels across the world have been covering the NZ earthquake. I hope that people will be strong enough to overcome all the pain and difficulties of this terrible and unfortunate calamity. Take care. Thank you for sharing this information with us.

Arthur Schenck said...

Not surprisingly, I've been getting contacted by concerned folks back home, too, and I posted everywhere I could think of to say we were okay (including a blog post, of course). It's really handy being able to let a lot of people know all at once that we're safe, isn't it?

One small thing: "…on the North Island"? Didn't the immigration people tell you that it's always "IN the North Island"? ;-)

Alexandra said...

I was so surprised when I heard this on the radio. Is there a history of quakes there????

Happy Frog and I said...

Glad to hear you are OK, thanks for posting this to let us know. A lot of my family have just come back from living in NZ (Auckland), but one is about to head back out there later this month. You can't help but worry.

Madame DeFarge said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Madame DeFarge said...

Glad to hear that you're okay. You're the only person I 'know' in NZ, so I feel relieved to learn that it remains the case. WV is 'squallo'. Take care.

Suzy said...

Left you a "checking up on you" tweet. Glad everyone's ok.

lisahgolden said...

Phew! Saw the tweet yesterday. I'm glad you're fine.

Lisa Page Rosenberg said...

Glad you're far from it and doing well.

CiCi said...

I did think of you the first thing when we heard the news of the quake in NZ. Sooooooo glad you are okay.

Casey Freeland said...

Extremely happy to hear you are OK. CA has plenty of quakes as well, but we're too far north to feel most of them. Once in a while though, maybe once a year, we'll feel one.

Take care,

Casey

Anonymous said...

My thoughts are with you all...!!Take care and be safe..!

Nik said...

It's amazing how many people contacted me as an another American expat down here. I used to get the same thing when I lived in Northern California and an earthquake happened in LA! Good people care enough to ask tho.