I am immensely relieved that no-one was killed in the recent earthquake in Canterbury.

With a magnitude of 7.1 on the Richter scale, the quake struck the South Island of New Zealand at 4:35 am local time on the 4th of September and is believed to be the worst earthquake to hit Godzone since 1931.

Friends of mine who live in an apartment block in the CBD of Christchurch provided a harrowing account of the experience:-

Firstly we were woken up at 4.35am on Sat morning with loud grumbling noises and very violent shaking. The shaking was so powerful you just couldn’t stand up. One of our neighbours cut her arm badly on the corner of her bathroom wall by trying to walk around while the earthquake was happening. It was like being on a ship during a hurricane. Or a roller-coaster!!

The aftershocks proved to be almost as big a problem as roads cracked, water and sewage pipes ruptured and falling debris created more damage and a bigger safety hazard.

Hell, I was only there 3 weeks ago!

The damage repair bill is already being estimated to be over a billion dollars…and rising as new aftershocks continue to hit the city of the plains.

But buildings can be repaired, infrastructure replaced. Lost lives cannot be resurrected and the body count was: zero.

That at least is something to be grateful for.

Postscript: Check out the quake location yourself by using the Christchurch Quake Map

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