[Gllug] Bad earthquake in New Zealand

[David L Neil]

Hi all,

Thanks for the several enquiries into my safety. Aw shucks, didn't 
realise you cared. Am still alive: barely shaken and still ready to stir...

There was a bad earthquake in Christchurch on the South Island in the
early hours of this morning (Saturday). I'm way up in the north of the
North Island and wasn't conscious of feeling a thing, especially given
that we had high winds (spring gale) quite literally howling overhead
for most of the night.

Although the earthquake was of the same magnitude as the one which
destroyed Port au Prince, Haiti and something like the second most
powerful since the white-man arrived here; we are far better-off because
the buildings have been constructed defensively. Nevertheless it is
miraculous that no fatalities were reported during the day. It appears
that even though there are cracks in roads etc which people can jump
down into/fit inside, the worst affected buildings are all rather old
(by New Zealand standards at least).

The people of Christchurch face a night with widespread power and other
shortages/cuts. The really bad news however is that an Antarctic blast
from out of the southern ocean will hammer them at up to 80mph tonight. 
Conversely, up here we're expecting north-westerlies and a sunny day 
that will see me out on the back deck, doing my best impression of 
someone who can build shelving or whatever other excuse I can find to 
get outside and show-off my magnificent physique to the new neighbors... 
(otherwise I'll have to be inside, struggling to get through more 
mundane moving-in tasks)

Look after yourselves - I'm more concerned about the threats on LON's
roads than New Zealand's fault lines!

Yours hobbit-ually,
=dn


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