Shakers
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Tue 7 Sep 2010 22:23
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Hi Folks,
Despite rumors of us in NZ being shaken and having
sunk in to the south pacific
its not true, the quake hit Christchurch,(little
england) last Sat, it was unexpected
as everone seems to think it will be Wellinton,
anyway it was completley out of
left field, the worst one since the Napier one in
1930.
Only two peolpe had serious injuries, it was well
timed , early in the morning
so there was no traffic or people out and about
which has minamised a lot of
the casualties.
The after shocks are continuing and can go on up to
six months after the
inital quake, there have been a few up the coast
from us in the Napier
region, being felt down here in Wellington, luckly
or not we are afloat
so dont feel a thing, our only danger will be a
tidal wave or the sea bed
being rasied, we could be grounded as it is
estimated that the sea bed
would rise 3 to 4 metres.
The land lifted in Christchurch some 3 m and there
are some great photos
on the net news of fields with steps in them, its
the first bad one we have
had since the 30's in a populated place, the
emergency services are well
drilled here for these events, the resuce and after
care was a credit to
all involved and was a striking contrast to the
Pacific islands were mayhem
ensude after, that a good bit of anglo saxon
organisation I think.
As part of our coast guard duties we get
involved as our boats are put
to sea or trailiered to high ground when this sort
of thing happens ! dont
know weather we would get that sort of warning with
the Wellington one
as its due to happen in the Cook strait som 20
miles away !
The irony of the whole thing is that a few
months ago some "expert"
downgraded the quake risk to NZ, the insurance
companies rubbed
there hands with the anticipation of more profit
... bugger !
All of the costs are covered by the
government Earth Quake Commision
a great idea, it has been running for a number of
years and takes a cut
of all insurance policies in NZ, it has a fund of
19 bilion NZD abd liquid
assets of 6 bilion, so the 2 bilion bill for this
one is well covered.
Our PM was due in London next week to hob nob with
David and Nick,
but has put it off due to the current problems down
here.
That all for now Folks
Noah's Shaking and
Rattling
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