Paulr and Pierre the shy.

[Techno]

Do we know where Paul and Peter live in NZ......and Ian, of course.

Trust none of them were anywhere near the quake and tsunami, and are OK !!!

Cheers - Phil

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Fingers crossed

[pierre the shy]

Thanks for checking up on us  

All good here thankfully.....was a BIG shake, though had one of my daughters sleep right through it and I had to wake her as soon as it stopped  

Haven't heard from Paul but I would imagine he's OK as we both live a little north of Wellington itself. Heard from family and other people in the area and thankfully they are all OK.

I think even Sandinista probably felt the quake way up at the top of the North Island!

No trains or other public transport today, though the local school is open which surprised me. Can't go to work till the building has been checked out in Wellington.

Most of the damage and casualties are down in the South Island again, the epicenter of the quake was north of Christchurch and at least one small town on the coast has been badly affected, cut off and some fatalities

Cheers
Peter

[pierre the shy]

Text from Paul...all good there to 

[paulr]

Thanks for the thoughts guys

We are fine as well, as Pierre the Shy said we are both north of Wellington so over 200km from main epicentre

My son in Christchurch (200 km south of epicentre) evacuated further inland in case of tsunami but as far as we know there have not been any major tsunami

I get to work from home today while the engineers check out our building plus hundreds of other in the centre of Wellington

I might even get some more done on the Crusaders  

[Techno]

Good news !! 

Couldn't remember exactly where you all were.
Delighted you're safe....Now we just need to hear from Ian.

7.8 is rather a big quake, isn't it ?......Sounds dreadful.
Very sad to hear some folk have been killed.

Best wishes - Phil

[paulr]

Ian is about 1,000km north of the quakes unless he happened to be traveling so should be fine

The main earthquake was in a fairly remote area so casualties have been low, two reported dead, one due to a heart attack triggered by the earthquake

[Westmarcher]

Good news !!  

Very sad to hear some folk have been killed.

Agreed.

(btw: good news that the guys are safe)

[pierre the shy]

Yes it was the biggest shake I've been in since I moved here as a kid many years ago.

Lots of people evacuated because of Tsunami warnings but that has passed now.....it will take a while for things to be back to normal here....not looking good for top of the South Island from the TV pictures.

Cheers
Peter

[Fenton]

Good to hear

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Glad you and yours are all okay gents.

[d_Guy]

Glad you guys have checked in, continue to stay safe.

[Kiwidave]

Felt it in Auckland (624.3 kms or 387.9 miles away) - very slightly; made our 3-storey townhouse sway a bit, which set the Venetian blinds rattling. Confused me somewhat, as at the time I though I'd imagined it. Have a mate in Lower Huttt (north of Wellington) that got shaken around a bit, but no damage to mention.

[Sandinista]

We are far too north to be affected, thankfully. We had the tsunami warnings, which I slept through  At it's worst it was only 1m anticipated up in Bay of Islands.

I am glad the fault lines turn east a long way south of us, I don't fancy having to deal with that.

My heart goes out to all those affected.

Cheers
Ian

[paulr]

Good to hear you guys are ok as well

Just had another good rattle, fortunately not while I was painting

[Kiwidave]

7.8 is rather a big quake, isn't it ?......Sounds dreadful.

It's fairly substantial. It's a logarythmic scale, so a 7.0 is 10 times worse than a 6.0, and 100 times worse than a 5.0.

The one that messed up Christchurch in 2011 was 6.3.

A quake's effects are also based on how deep it is, and it's type (up-and-down or side-to-side). That's pretty much exhausted my knowledge of earthquakes though

[paulr]

At 15km the main one was fairly shallow

The seismologists are now saying it was in fact two quakes at almost the same time very close together

About 20 after shocks of 5.0 or greater so far, including a 6.2 and a 6.3

[Techno]

Good to hear Ian's OK too. 

News here has just reported another 'single' shock.....Though from what Paul has put, it was no more powerful than the aftershocks.
(Or maybe one of those, was what the radio was talking about ?)

Where are you, Dave ?......You did move back 'home', didn't you ?......Or is my memory playing tricks on me ?

Keep safe guys !

Cheers - Phil

[pierre the shy]

Aftershocks are continuing to rattle us all day...been over 200 so far, most are much smaller than the main event, which is now thought to have actually been two quakes very close together.

Looks like back to work tomorrow for me. Its going to take a major effort to clean up this quake, a lot of road and rail infrastructure damage down south and here in Wellington.

One of the worst things I have heard today was that people in low lying areas of Christchurch evacuated to higher ground when the tsunami warnings went off. When they returned home, after the all clear was given, they found 19 houses had been completely stripped of electronics and anything else of value by looters.....B******s     

[Techno]

One of the worst things I have heard today was that people in low lying areas of Christchurch evacuated to higher ground when the tsunami warnings went off. When they returned home, after the all clear was given, they found 19 houses had been completely stripped of electronics and anything else of value by looters.....B******s     

THE BLANKING SCUM !!

So hope the police catch them, and they get the book thrown at them ! 
No doubt the insurance companies will try and wriggle out of paying out, because the houses were all unoccupied.
That would be one thing that would cheer me up........ If that wasn't the case. (Fingers crossed !)

Cheers - Phil