So, Brown and Joy, what is your sitrep? Hows things going?
I live at the bottom of the North Island, 2 hours drive north of Wellington the Capital city.
We didn't feel the Christchurch earthquake in our area,as it is on a new faultline.
Not to say we haven't had a few good shakes in recent times, which have been rather scary after the first large quake Chch had.
It is very distressing to see all that has happened to our countrymen, but I realise I only have limited knowledge to physically be able to help and would be in the way if I personally went down there.
There are 2 FF from our small town FD looking to go down to help.
My Station Officer, was in one of the first USAR teams to get there on the same day that the quake hit. (My thoughts and prayers go out to him, I know how hard he has worked for just such an incident. I don't even mind that I use to almost fall over his USAR bags left lying around the station, knowing what help they are now!)
There are crews of FD,Ambulance, Police and Military from all over New Zealand, including many overseas specialised groups, involved with the rescue, policing and clean up operations.
The earthquake was very shallow, hence the reason for the amount of damage to the city.
Up until the 7.1 quake on Sept 04 2010, Christchurch have not really had any earthquakes. Since then, they have had in execess of 5000 aftershocks.
This site was set up by Canterbury (Christchurch) University after the first big quake and shows all of the aftershocks thus far.
http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/
The larger shocks at the moment, 4.0+ on the RS, are causing concern for the rescue efforts, as alot of hertiage (built in the late 1800's) brick buildings are subtaining more damage and engineers have to deem them safe enough to continue the efforts of the rescue workers.
Thank you for those of you that really do care and understand!
I heard on the news this morning that CA quake specialists are watching what is happening to us with grave concerns, as LA and SF have faultlines which can have the same effect.
Cheers Enjoynz