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Earthquake in New Zealand

When luck ran out

Feb 22nd 2011, 12:53 by C.H.

AT 12:51pm local time an earthquake shattered Christchurch, killing at least 65 people in New Zealand’s second-largest city. With many more of its 380,000 residents reported to be trapped or missing, that toll is sure to rise. John Key, the prime minister, rushed to the city and soon judged that this might rank as his country’s “darkest day”.

As a rule, events in New Zealand tend not to trouble the international news pages. That has changed lately, with a run of horror stories from the country’s South Island. First came an earthquake that struck Christchurch last September. Despite extensive damage, no deaths resulted. There were no such miracles left in November, when an explosion at an underground coal mine across the Southern Alps from Christchurch killed 29 men. On February 22nd, Christchurch’s luck ran out.

Although the latest tremor was technically less severe than September’s (6.3 magnitude as opposed to 7.1 then) it was also shallower (5km rather than 10km), with an epicentre less than 10km away from the city centre—last time it had been 30km away. The timing also had a terrible effect: September’s quake occurred in the early morning on a weekend, but this time round the streets were bustling with lunchtime workers, shoppers, tourists and schoolchildren.

New Zealand is better equipped to cope with such a blow than is any poor country—Haiti, for instance. Even so this time the material damage, let alone the human cost, is massive. Older, colonial-era buildings in the most “English” of New Zealand’s cities had borne the brunt of September’s earthquake. With the city’s infrastructure weakened then, and during the run of aftershocks since, many of its newer buildings toppled this time—as did the spire of Christchurch’s iconic Anglican cathedral. The quake was felt far afield, including in the Southern Alps, where great chunks of a glacier fell. Damage at the port of Lyttleton was severe.

In Christchurch proper the mayor, Bob Parker, declared a state of emergency, and the airport has closed to all but relief flights. One-third of the city was reported to be without electricity, with widespread damage to roads, water, sewage and gas infrastructure. Emergency services, though quick to react, were swamped by the scale of the damage. A relief centre in the city’s Hagley Park was soon filled to capacity.

Overnight, as rain started falling, extra personnel, including military, were heading for Christchurch, while a team of search-and-rescue specialists were crossing the Tasman Sea from Australia. The city’s ability to cope with the Rugby World Cup, likely to be New Zealand’s largest-ever international event, in September and October, is now under question; hotels have been hard hit and the main stadium is being assessed for damage.

New Zealand’s dollar and stockmarket both slumped on the news, and in Wellington, the capital, an emergency cabinet meeting approved special measures to meet the cost of the aftermath. Mr Key’s conservative coalition government faces an election scheduled for November 26th. Last year the government and Mr Key in particular won praise for their handling of 2010’s disasters, and their poll rankings have remained strong. But the economic cost of this latest disaster, coming on top of last year’s bill—estimated to be NZ$3.5 billion by New Zealand’s Earthquake Commission—is sure to sting. New Zealanders are already coping with climbing cost-of-living and unemployment rates. The government’s political fortunes, already hit by the recession, might hinge on this disaster’s long-term effect on Kiwis’ finances.

Today’s earthquake has once again underlined New Zealand’s treacherous seismic conditions. Positioned at the southern end of the Pacific Ocean’s “ring of fire” and at the convergence of the Indo-Australian and Pacific plates, its islands are no strangers to the odd tectonic jolt. But its quakes, however frequent, are usually quite small. And the sparseness of the country’s human population, at just 4m, has meant that severe damage and loss of life are rare. Till now, no quake had killed many people since 1931. The severity of the September quake, along a fault line previously unknown to seismologists, had been a shock. Worse still could yet come to Christchurch, as aftershocks—one of them already measured 5.0—harass and terrify its survivors. 

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cold turkei wrote:
Feb 22nd 2011 1:38 GMT

Hang in there people. I was in Rangiora four weeks back, we also visited Kaiapoi and saw the cleanup well underway. The rest of the world is watching and we wish we could help - right away, in amongst the rubble. I bet plenty of Libyans would like nothing better. And maybe even its a good time to invest, Kiwis always bounce back. God Bless

indica wrote:
Feb 22nd 2011 4:55 GMT

Very distressing that the city of Christchurch should be hit twice within six months. Kiwis are a nice lot, they can expect moral and material support from far flung countries of the world.

Our hearts go out to you people of Christchurch and that region. You will rise again.

Feb 22nd 2011 6:56 GMT

The saddest form of natural disaster, without any forewarning. My heart goes out to the families that lost their loved ones! The rest of the world is with you.

engnz wrote:
Feb 22nd 2011 8:41 GMT

I live in Christchurch, and it's pretty grim at the moment. Everyone was starting to think the worst was over after the September quake, and then we got this in the middle of a weekday afternoon. That said, the emergency response has been really good, and a great deal of help has been offered and is on the way from all over the world: Australia, the UK, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Israel, and those are just the countries our media have named. It's certainly made us feel less alone, so thank you to those countries.

Cloudwarrior wrote:
Feb 22nd 2011 9:33 GMT

"New Zealand is better equipped to cope with such a blow than is any poor country"

Being a developed country does help here, but I would like to add that possessing an extremely competent government with an extremely low corruption element is also going to be a great factor in recovering from this tragedy.

The people of this amazing city and country can at least trust that the recovery and rebuilding will not see money lining the pockets of corrupt bureaucrats.

Feb 23rd 2011 2:42 GMT

What has happened in Christchurch is so sad and tragic. Our hearts and prayers go out to the Kiwis.

When the "Big One" hits Los Angeles and Southern California, however, it will make this quake and 9/11 seem like "child's play" in terms of fatalities and physical damage.

For example, the steel joints in many high-rise office buildings were apparently weakened by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, and nothing has been done to repair them. To remove tenants from the buildings, while the potentially-critical work is underway, was deemed to be politically and economically unpalatable. Thus, the problems were swept under the rug and never addressed by building owners and the city’s politicians. Los Angeles may rue the day that this happened.

See http://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/earthquakes-the-big-one-is-c...
least-los-angeles/

Paulose100 wrote:
Feb 23rd 2011 3:04 GMT

@ Cloudwarrior

Only half of the claims from the Sept 4 quake had been processed and the EQC have been drafting in former police officers to assess them. It seems like a complete shambles.

No end in sight yet for the people of Christchurch. I don't know how they put up with it.

Paulose100 wrote:
Feb 23rd 2011 3:05 GMT

The city has been shaking regularly since Sept, with aftershocks up to 5.1 magnitude recorded.

Christchurch is the largest city in New Zealand's South Island and the country's third largest.

New Zealand sits on the so-called "Ring of Fire", the boundary of the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates, and experiences up to 15,000 tremors a year. It averages at least one a day that is magnitude 4.0 or stronger.

Paulose100 wrote:
Feb 23rd 2011 3:07 GMT

The loss for the city cannot be quantified, specially the deaths and stress. But analyst in financial times have already started speculating on NZ's future economic prospect after today's earthquake. The dent in the budget, and already an economy in recession, will be worse imaginable.

Many fear that NZ is headed to become a member of the "PIGS" club from Europe. But after this earthquake, analyst are predicting, NZ will have a much worse experience than the recent crises in Europe.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1...tml#axzz1EYtogngg

"Roland Randall, senior strategist at TD Securities, said rebuilding costs from last year’s earthquake were already significant for New Zealand’s strained government finances. He estimated total costs of around NZ$4bn ($3bn) shared between the country’s Earthquake Commission, private insurance and individuals.
“The addition of this potentially more damaging quake will make it even harder for New Zealand to meet its commitment to return the budget to surplus by 2015-16,” he said."

Indiancat wrote:
Feb 23rd 2011 3:18 GMT

@ Patriot 1

In general, New Zealand society has very little ability to engage in (or even tolerate) honest self-evaluation.

As a result, a lot of ideas about New Zealand's place in the world and what the rest of the world is like are considered axiomatic and to question them is like questioning whether the earth orbits the sun (even if the axiom flies in the face of the evidence!).

One of the deeply held beliefs in New Zealand society is that New Zealand is either the best or one of the best at --insert almost anything you choose here--.

New Zealand definitely has some very positive aspects to it, so it's certainly true sometimes. The flip side to that is that it just as often isn't true at all, but is strongly believed by the average Kiwi in spite of this.

This idea is instilled and reinforced in many different ways, whether it's through what you're taught in school, see on TV, read in the newspapers or pick up from what other people say (Propaganda). It's a part of a cultural value / belief system that's subtly (and sometimes not so subtly!) instilled by Kiwi society.

Indiancat wrote:
Feb 23rd 2011 3:27 GMT

@ Paulose100

I agree with you. NZ is already suffering from major budget deficit and this one will be devastating for already "sick" economy dependent on tourism and migration.

Poverty will increase in the coming decades. Already 20% of NZ children seems to be "food insecure", that is sleeping with empty stomach. Just listen to few kiwis on online radio talkback shows. You will understand the poverty that has stricken NZ in recent decades. Is that why thousands flee the country to nearby Australia. NZ has one of the highest number of expats (unskilled labour basically) in the world, in terms of per capita basis. Higher than Ireland, so you can guess, how the state of the economy must be.

Recent report on children going hungry in NZ.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/features/4676276/Hu

"Back in 1997, the country's first National Survey found almost 30% of our households experienced a degree of food insecurity. Last year, a smaller research project pushed that figure up to 40%. In that survey, 82% of low income households stated the variety of food they ate was "often" or "sometimes" limited by a lack of money".

Indiancat wrote:
Feb 23rd 2011 3:33 GMT

@ Cloudwarrior

Your mention about lack of corruption in NZ. Let me bust your bubble, that your propaganda media has been feeding you people for last few decades.

It's hard to be corrupt when the people CONSENT to the corruption that goes on. In fact, New Zealand law allows the parliament to make any decision it wants any time it wants without any regard to the "Bill of Rights." By that logic, it's impossible for there to BE corruption. In NZ lawmaking and policy writing, anything goes.

No one in NZ is interested in politics or anything like that, so how would they detect corruption in the first place? Why don't people ever protest or make their voices heard? Because doing so would break the cardinal rule of New Zealand's lethargic cultural apathy: "She'll be right, mate." The last thing anyone wants to do in New Zealand is say something negative, even when it NEEDS to be said, because if they say something negative, everyone will try to chop them down. People in NZ tend to frown on those who are well-informed. Well-informed people make well-informed arguments, which makes them look like tall poppies. Part of adapting to the Kiwi lifestyle -- this myth of "laid back"ness -- is simply accepting that she'll be right, mate. So corruption? She'll be right.

CatIndian wrote:
Feb 23rd 2011 3:38 GMT

@ Indiancat

You are correct man. The preception of corruption in Nz amuses me.You ask people how they define it and you get different answers.Is lobbying in parliament corruption? he breweries in NZ are very good at that.

As far as I am concerned corruption is paying officials backhand cash to obtain permits or approvals and getting them also faster than normal.Obviously when you have foreign industrial investment foreigners need permits to set up factories because of pollution concerns etc.

Thus it is natural that countries who receive lots of industrial investment has the potential of high levels of corruption eg China.NZ does not have that, since there is no industrial investment.Also when you have no investigative press many scandals remain hidden. Given the naive world-view that Kiwis have, they think there is hardly no corruption in NZ whereas other countries are worse since their press report on some nasty discoveries.

The fundamental question to be asked is as follow:
If NZ is non corrupt and it is so easy to start up a business etc, how come that it drifts closer and closer bankruptcy.

Can somebody answer this? Specially my friend Cloudwarrior.

Cloudwarrior wrote:
Feb 23rd 2011 4:24 GMT

Is it just me or is it highly suspicious that within a 34 minute period four posters all from India descended on this thread to talk amongst themselves, when it took 24 hours to get 6 posts from 6 different people?

Even more suspicious that these posters appear on the same threads time after time and continually agree with each other. It seems there is nothing like a natural disaster to excite some people into taking pot-shots at countries.

Instead of improving the lives and conditions in their own countries they seem to take extreme pleasure in pointing out the flaws in others. Especially when those flaws pale in comparison to the tragic history, current dire conditions and future poor prospects of their own country.

Cloudwarrior wrote:
Feb 23rd 2011 4:24 GMT

However, back to actual earthquake news:
BNZ head of research Stephen Toplis said that trying to estimate the economic impact of yesterday's 6.3 magnitude quake at this stage is foolish, "The biggest disservice you can do anybody at the moment is make a stupid estimate of the dollar value of this.

There is speculation that the Reserve Bank will cut the official cash rate to help stimulate the economy which will be impacted by this event.

Anjin-San wrote:
Feb 23rd 2011 6:30 GMT

As someone who had more than a casual dealing with Christchurch (I visited the city 3 times between 1999 and 2001 in an effort to recerate the Christchurch Shuttle bus service in central Tokyo), I am pained to see the horrors of Kobe 1995 played all over again in Christchurch 2011. I made several friends there, and I can't get in touch with them so far, making me more than a little nervous...

Feb 23rd 2011 6:38 GMT

I was under the impression New Zealand was one of the least corrupt countries in the world. It consistently ranks in the top band in perception (or lack thereof) of corruption. And if you look at the conditions that usually inspire corruption, such as widespread poverty, lack of transparency in media and government, shoddy democracy or lack of democracy, strong tribal or sub-cultural divides etc, New Zealand doesn't really look like very fertile soil for corruption.

But, back to the earthquake, it's heartbreaking to see such a beautiful city in such a wonderful country populated by such lovely people struck like this. However, it's often in times of natural disaster that a nation's character shines through, and the tales of selfless toil to help others, along with a (signature) level-headed response about getting things back up and running as soon as possible are a credit to New Zealand as a nation and as a people.

Beach Mountie wrote:
Feb 23rd 2011 6:53 GMT

@ Patriot 1

New Zealand is home to hundreds of volcanoes and sits on the ring of fire. I don't think we could 'hide' the frequency of our seismic events if we tried. Thousands of tourists visit places like Rotorua - one of the most active thermal regions in the world - every year. Surely the fact that you found this information on a New Zealand website should demonstrate that no one is keeping any earthquake 'secrets'.

To put your mind at ease, I can assure you that after 30 years of living in New Zealand, the only earthquake I experienced was in Korea. You may be interested to know that before my arrival in the country they had not made me aware of the potential for unpredictable natural disasters. Strangely, I don't feel duped by them.

As I'm sure you are concered with the welfare of those affected by this disaster, I can tell you that thousands are homeless, hundreds are missing, dozens are dead. I'm sure many people will continue to choose New Zealand as a destination to visit in spite of seismic activity that we have no control over and have never concealed. If you choose to visit countries that can guarantee no chance of mishap - natural or otherwise - then good luck to you in finding one.

Beach Mountie wrote:
Feb 23rd 2011 8:13 GMT

I'm so shocked that people would use this event (and this article) as an opportunity to take pot-shots at a country suffering a tragedy. It's cowardly and shameful. At a time like this, political views and opinions about the culture or psyche of a nation are not the issue. It's about people. We're all the same. We all feel pain and grief. The people who have used this event to share their negative views about New Zealand and her people should feel so embarrased.

Cloudwarrior wrote:
Feb 23rd 2011 10:21 GMT

@ Ockham's Beard and Beach Mountie (and other readers of this forum)

Please don't buy into Indiacat/CatIndian/Patriot 1/Paulose100. These logins suspiciously all appear together on some forums agreeing with each other; rarely reasonable, and all use the same style of writing and at times the same turn of phrase. A reasonable person could assume they may are the same person who logs in under multiple aliases or a group of individuals known to each other. It is interesting to note that they all sometimes make the same spelling mistakes.

These posters have a massive issue with Australia and New Zealand and use any article on those countries to spew vitriol in an attempt to paint them in a bad light. This is usually done by trawling the internet and looking for any article that can be misquoted or skewed to advance a certain viewpoint. This is usually done by using vague phrases that contain words such as "seem" and "many fear".

To put these posters in perspective, here are direct quotes:
Paulose100 in January 2011:
"Its nothing personal Cloudwarrior. Just have a bit of fetish to bash Australia and other Anglo (declining) countries...... who acts smarts from time to time (usually punching way above their weights). Small and worthless countries in the world stage, like NZ, UK, Scotland, Australia etc."

CatIndian in October 2010:
"...Australia and NZ will be shit scared with India's military might (got something personal with these trash Anglos). Am happy with that..:)"

Patriot 1 in June 2009:
" 'I say pick some aussies and give them the same treatment...... They are simply racist and nothing is going to change until aussies in India are affected. So just smash these convicts.' Good on you poster...i attest to it..."

Indiancat in August 2010:
"My aim is, for us Indian nationalist to work together and in a coordinated way so that we can dominate these medium of expression, at any given timeframe".

So please take these facts into consideration when reading any posts by Indiacat/CatIndian/Patriot 1/Paulose100. I have found them/him to be impossible to debate as they/he can rarely substantiate any claims made and can entail personal attacks in reply.

(A note to the moderators - this comment has been carefully phrased and does not infringe your Terms of use - it is not a personal attack, nor does it contain any facts that cannot be proven or substantiated.)

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