Damn, another bad earthquake under Christchurch

Would you believe, I had the building inspectors in this morning to check for damage from the first event. Sometimes you just gotta laugh...

Where's the "No Random Events" checkbox for real life?

Unoffical deathtoll 200-400 now just came over the news.

SG-17 said:

Nature has a way sometimes of reminding Man of just how small he is. She occasionally throws up terrible offspring's of our pride and carelessness to remind us of how puny we really are in the face of a tornado, an earthquake, or a Godzilla. The reckless ambitions of Man are often dwarfed by their dangerous consequences. For now, Godzilla - that strangely innocent and tragic monster - has gone to earth. Whether he returns or not, or is never again seen by human eyes, the things he has taught us remain... - Mr. Martin

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Oh shut up Mr. Martin. This earthquake is a consequence of what human action exactly? Existing?

Pouakai said:

Hey guys, just thought I'd pop in! The power's just come back on after 6 hours. Bloody scary, I tell ya. Several aftershocks, my house is fine though, except for the stuff falling off the walls. Oh, and the fish tanks spilled everywhere. All 3 of them, biggest 200 litres. Family is all OK, which is the main thing

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Clam Spammer said:

Would you believe, I had the building inspectors in this morning to check for damage from the first event. Sometimes you just gotta laugh...

Where's the "No Random Events" checkbox for real life?

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Glad you're okay.

Also, do you think the unaddressed damages done during the last one might've contributed to the severity of the effects of this quake?

Kraznaya said:

So people from less populated countries are worth more?

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NO, he was just saying what the effects would be like on a more densely populated area would have been, but this is terrible news.

read on twitter:
The Queen tells New Zealand PM she is 'utterly shocked' by the latest earthquake in Christchurch
http://bbc.in/eyQpd9

Holy crap.. this is horrible

I was just there 2 months ago, admiring downtown Christchurch.. It's a very small city, 300,000 people or so, but their downtown is awesome.. or was

Hope all of our Kiwis and their friends and families are safe

My house has a large crack in the concrete foundations from the Boxing Day aftershocks, which remains unchecked.

I saw footage of this on the news, this is horrible. I'll be praying for you dudes.

taillesskangaru said:

Oh shut up Mr. Martin. This earthquake is a consequence of what human action exactly? Existing?

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I don't think that's the point; Mr. Martin's point seems (to me at least) rather that its not a result of human actions, just a stark reminder of how little significance man has in the wider universe, and how its existence is very fragile - you could do everything right, be a good person, yet through a natural disaster, you could cease to be in an instant. Cynicism, essentially.

I survived this one, as I did the previous one. Unfortunately the toll was higher this time, since although the magnitude was lower it was a lot shallower and closer to the central city, plus it happened in the middle of the day rather than the middle of the night. Not good stuff. Originally 80% of the city was without power, amazingly we were one of the lucky few who never lost it. Water went a bit funny though, and it smells outside (sewerage I guess). No major damage to our house fortunately.

Heard a few hours ago that at least one university student was killed in one of the crushed buses - didn't know him but still very sad. With the current toll at 75 and likely to rise well into the hundreds, it's likely that there'll be someone that most people know or know of amongst the dead. Not a good situation really. The city'll pull through of course, but it's a bugger being hit twice so hard in only a few months.

Oh, and as for the name "Christchurch", no one here really gives it a second thought. It's just a name, nothing more. And for the record, we're one of the least religious countries around, so all that discussion around the name is a bit bemusing (especially coming from the US).

I found the name Christchurch very odd as well, until I came to NZ for 5 weeks.. now it's just another name.

Are they going to rebuild the cathedral and all the other historical buildings that were damaged/destroyed?

I heard DT Christchurch suffered massive damage

Don't know what the plans are regarding rebuilding. I think the priority right now is still on finding survivors and cleaning up the mess. They probably won't even be thinking about rebuilding until all that's done.

It is good that you survived.