Friday, December 21, 2007

Gisborne Earthquake

We did not feel the quake in the Far North District.

Around 8:55pm last night, a 30-second, 6.8-magnitude earthquake rocked the east coast, approximately 50km off shore from Gisborne. At least two buildings collapsed in the city and dozens of other buildings were damaged. The worst damage is in the CBD. The railway line between Gisborn and Napier is shut down until it can be thoroughly inspected. The earthquake was felt as far south as Christchurch and as far north as Auckland's southern suburbs. Many Gisborne residents scurried for high ground in case the quake generated a tsunami (it didn't).

A 4.5 aftershock happened this morning.

A state of emergency was declared for the Gisborne area this morning. The city and the district council have mobilized the civil defense agencies and are trying to get things inspected and cleaned up as quickly as possible.

TVNZ's coverage, to be honest, was very disappointing. The quake was at 8:55pm. The evening newscast was at 10:40pm. In nearly two hours, they still had no video from the Gisborne, only phoners. By the Breakfast show, they had heaps of video and they were doing plenty of aftermath coverage.

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1517941

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