A powerful earthquake of magnitude 6.3 in Richter scale shook New Zealand's South Island and its largest city of Christchurch on Tuesday afternoon at 12:50 p.m. local time. The New Zealand Herald reported that the quake's epicenter was Lyttelton with a depth of 5 kilometers, though it was felt as far away as Wellington and Dunedin per Twitter reports. It shook the Canterbury region, which has a population of approximately 500,000. The death toll at the time of this writing is 65 but is expected to rise. The country’s television channel, TV3, has estimated the figure could reach between 200 and 300.
The pictures in this gallery show extensive damage.
Photos: Martin Hunter / Getty Images, Richard Cosgrove / Christchurch Press for Reuters, Mark Mitchell / AP,
This is quite a blow to the country's population. atleast 60 deaths is a lot for a country who's population is 1000. Prayers going up for our friends in New Zealand! Prayers and condolences to those who lost family and other loved ones in this terrible tragedy. My thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Christchurch, New Zealand. let us give them a help in any way possible.
ReplyDeleteWhere did you hear these figures?!? The common saying in NZ is "3 million people and 63 million ship. One day, they'll realize they're the majority." The population now is around 3.5 million. It is considered empty as it is roughly the same size as Japan, which has about 130 million people! Thereby another saying: "The last person to leave NZ, please turn the light off!" (Not kiwi myself, just have been there twice. Love it!)
DeleteSome of the most beautiful or awe inspiring places on our planet are also in places where the earth's surface is the most unstable which is sad. Am sure living in such a beautiful place makes it worth it but New Zealand and Australia have been so hammered by the last few years by fire, floods and earthquakes, praying for their families and love one’s who are victims of calamities.
ReplyDeleteTo New Buffalo MI fishing - thank you for your kind words for the people of Chch, NZ but our population is over 4 million, not 1000! Cheers.
ReplyDeleteI visited Christchurch in Dec. 1999 thru Jan. 2000 and as my boyfriend at the time was an actor and we were invited/flown there for a millennium event, we went to a local TV building to meet the staff and schedule interviews. When the earthquake it when i heard "Christchurch", my heart sank as I fell in love with the area, but when I saw the TV station building destroyed, I can't even describe it...
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