Trendy News & Articles

A strong earthquake damaged much of New Zealand's South Island early yesterday. The quake had a magnitude of 7.0, down from an initial assessment of 7.4, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It struck about 35 miles from Christchurch, a city with a population of some 386,000 people on the east coast of South Island. An aftershock with a magnitude of 5.7 struck not far from the epicenter about 20 minutes later, the survey said.

The earthquake struck at 0435 on Saturday local time(1635 GMT on Friday), when most people would have been asleep. A resident of Christchurch Wright Hadlee said,
"The house felt like it was on wheels, like it was rolling around on marbles".

A state of emergency was declared and army troops were on standby to assist after the quake, which hit 19 miles west of Christchurch, according to the state geological agency GNS Science. No tsunami alert was issued. Police from Auckland and other areas were flying in to help with recovery efforts. Roads had been blocked by rubble, power and traffic lights were out, and gas and water supplies disrupted, while chimneys and walls had fallen from older buildings.

Roughly 100 people were being treated for minor bumps and cuts after the strong quake, hospital officials said. Two people suffered more serious injuries. Minister of Civil Defense John Carter stressed the low number of casualties.
"I think we've been extremely lucky as a nation that there's been no fatalities," Carter told reporters.

Christchurch International Airport was closed after the quake as a precaution, as experts checked runways and terminal buildings, a spokesman said.

Experts said the low levels of injury reflect the strict building codes that apply in New Zealand,
which records more than 14,000 earthquakes a year.
"New Zealand has very good building codes ... (that) mean the buildings are strong compared with, say, Haiti," which suffered widespread death and devastation in a magnitude 7.0 quake this year, earth sciences professor Martha Savage said.

A severe earthquake hits south New Zealand: No deaths reported