Christchurch Earthquake 22 Febuary 2011

We were hoping like hell that we were on the road to recovery after the September 4th, 7.1 Earthquake.
Unfortunatly at 12:51pm on the 22 Febuary while I was home at Oxford having lunch, I was in my office as the house started to do another of those big wobbles that we had been having less of latley. I wasn't too bad here, a sort of slow rolling shake that sort of dragged on a bit. When it had finished I thought "I hope like hell that wasn't the outer limits of another big shake in the city". We turned on the TV and sure enough breaking new texts were travelling across the screen with coverage to follow soon. What followed was scenes of the devestation left by a 5KM deep 6.3 earthquake centered 5Km from the city. Many, many buildings have been extensively damaged and so far 38 fatalities and possibly a couple of hundred still trapped in buildings. We are ok out here 60Km from the city and all friends and family have come through unharmed. Below are a bunch of pictures i have found on the net of the mess my home town is in.

I understand 3 people may have lost thier lives in this bus.

it appears on part of the CBD was spared

Manchester Street. Jess works just around the corner. She was at the university at the time where no one was injured.

The old churches really got hit hard.

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This one is most destressing and was a CHCH land mark. our most famous building. They think someone may have been in the spire at the time

And this one was also if major historic importance. The first buildings of governence build in CHCH in the 19th centuary.

One of the worst affected buildings before and after. my uncle use to work in this building when i was young and i knew it well as the Christchurch Drainage board.