New Zealand quake 2011 Video: buildings crumble as earthquake hits Christchurch (photos, video)
The Christchurch, New Zealand, earthquake is the top news story in the UK. New Zealand still retains close ties to Great Britain. It is no longer a colony of the UK but it owes its system of democracy to England. The British royal family are frequent visitors to New Zealand.
See video on left. Part of the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, was caught on tape. You can see a section of a building crumbling.
All flights out out of New Zealand have been stopped. Click here for more on that story.
The Iconic steeple on the Christchurch Cathedral collapsed in the quake.
<<<<<<<See slideshow photos of some of the damage and the earthquake aftermath.<<<<
Click here for more raw video from the Associated Press (AP).
The death toll is at 65 and is expected to go higher. The earthquake had a magnitude 6.3. The earthquake struck during lunchtime in Christchurch. Fortunately, it is summertime in New Zealand now, so residents don't have to cope with the cooler winter weather. New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key has called the disaster New Zealand's darkest hour.
New Zealand is no stranger to earthquakes but fortunately also has been a leader in earthquake resistant building construction. The capital of New Zealand is Wellington. The city's national museum there features the base-isolating construction which was developed in that country. An exhibit just outside the museum's main entrance shows how the base-isolating technology keeps buildings standing after quakes by allowing the structures to roll with the quakes.
The other major cities of New Zealand, Auckland and Wellington are pitching in and sending emergency personnel to help assist Christchurch residents with the emergency response.
Christchurch is New Zealand's second largest city with a population of 376,000. The population of New Zealand is 4.3 million.
A Google page was set up to help locate family and friends in New Zealand. Here is that Web site:
Comments
Terrible tragedy, my friend Jules and his wife Effin are there just now. Luckily they are safe. They were there for the September 2010 earthquake too and luckily they were safe then too.
It's such a heart-breaking story. I wrote a piece about a mother caught under the rubble for 24 hours, who had called her children from there to wish them goodbye- see the story here: http://www.examiner.com/top-news-in-san-francisco/sf-nz-quake-woman-resc...
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