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NZ earthquake toll at 98 dead, 226 missing

21 Comments

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21 Comments
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Absolutely horrible. Will probably reach into the thousands when it is finished. I know three people there. 2 are safe, and the other is trapped.

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Hope Japanese rescue team is on the way to NZ. US team is on the way. Help them as much as you can.

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As a Canadian from British Columbia who lives in Tokyo, I have been watching the news from Christchurch pretty closely. My main concern is of course with the loss of life and the hope that as many people can be rescued as possible, but there are also a couple of extremely troubling points coming out about this earthquake. One, is the amount of liquefaction taking place and the instability of the buildings on landfill or less than solid ground. The last big earthquake in Tokyo was the 1923 earthquake I think, the modern Tokyo of tall buildings and areas of landfill such as Odaiba has never experienced a major earthquake. Two, is the first thing I noticed from the pictures was how much it looked like home (a point made by a writer at the Vancouver Sun also), especially all the brick buildings. For those who don't know, the Cascadia fault that lies off BC, and Washington and Oregon states is thought to be the world's most dangerous, but with no major quakes since European settlement.

Not writing that to try to scare people, but it is definitely scary. Hopefully the authorities in Japan, Canada, and the USA, can study the New Zealand quake and find ways to be better prepared if possible.

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GJDailleult

One, is the amount of liquefaction taking place and the instability of the buildings on landfill or less than solid ground.

There isn't any landfill or reclamation in Christchurch. But the water table is pretty high and many parts of the city used to be swampland.

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2020hindsight: "There isn't any landfill or reclamation in Christchurch. But the water table is pretty high and many parts of the city used to be swampland."

I think GJDailleult was referring to Tokyo, but not sure.

Anyway, I wish I were there trying to help. For now, I can only hope and pray they find more alive.

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Hold on in there people. All our energies and thoughts are with you New Zealand!

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As a Mexican, where we have plenty of our own earthquakes, I feel real sorry for all those dead, injured etc...down in NZ, have good mates, Kiwis, always drank too much had a great time, and most of my Kiwi mates are from Christchurch so this news hurts me even more. RIP dead folk, and to think of all those Japanese students who may also be dead, injured etc..and their parents now flying down to NZ, I can not even imagine the sadness they must be going through.

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Smithinjapan - "I think GJDailleult was referring to Tokyo, but not sure."

I think he was talking about Christchurch.

My aunty and her partner live about 20 minutes north of the central city.

They only got a few hairline cracks in the ceiling after the quake in September.

But in the street around the corner from their place, 14 houses in a row had to be written off due the ground under them turning to mush – liquefaction.

It’s definitely an issue down there.

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Sorry about the confusion there, but when I heard about the liquefaction problem I started thinking about the Tokyo situation, and also Vancouver and my home town of Victoria, where some parts are built on landfill. Also, I am not sure, but I think Seattle down by the two stadiums is on landfill as well. I think I read somewhere that Christchurch was on an alluvial plain or something, and made the jump to landfill, so again sorry about the error.

Anyways, was just talking to my sister down in Australia, she said my brother-in-law was on the phone just after the earthquake reports came out, calling the Dunedin branch office to check on staff safety in the Christchurch office of the company he works for. Couldn't get through to Christchurch. He was told that in Dunedin they thought they were at the epicenter of a big quake, when they heard they weren't they knew it was going to be a bad situation.

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As a worried Kiwi with family in the city, I just want to commend the amazing response, not just of emergency services and defense forces in NZ, but also from all over New Zealand.

I also am grateful for Sky News Australia offering a live feed there along with TV3, which although not altogether helpful for people still worrying about unaccounted for loved ones, still did a great job under very difficult circumstances of getting all possible information out under circumstances where the people reporting the stories were themselves victims, unsure of the safety of their own families.

Also as a Kiwi, I think TVNZ should have it's government funding stopped. It's a disgrace that they blocked coverage of the disaster from viewers outside New Zealand. We're the ones most worried, and a quarter of Kiwis live abroad, and are worried sick about people there just like everyone else. I'm very glad and appreciative that TV3 and Australian news networks, and heck, even Japanese news did a better job of getting information out to people abroad.

Everyone in my own family is safe and accounted for, and thoughts and wishes to those still unsure, or coping with loss.

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Pardon me, first paragraph got a bit messed up - I just wanted to comment on the amazing quick response from the Australian federal and state governments to assist in NZ as well. And to other governments - Taiwan, Singapore, US, UK and Japan that all started providing material assistance within the first 24 hours. In what is a very difficult situation, it is reassuring to see such an orderly and committed relief effort start right away.

Some people have mentioned handling of Kobe in a disparraging light, but it is precisely because of Kobe and the extensive research into what went wrong that disasters like this are handled so much better now, in NZ and around the world, and it is a credit to Japan and the many other countries that sent help that everyone responded so quickly in such a meaningful way.

Peace

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Also as a Kiwi, I think TVNZ should have it's government funding stopped. It's a disgrace that they blocked coverage of the disaster from viewers outside New Zealand

I was watching TVNZ for much of today and I'm based ion Japan. They have an international feed that gives everything you could need.

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Really? I went to the live feed from the news page and it was "NZ Only". Perhaps I need to dig around more...

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Really? I went to the live feed from the news page and it was "NZ Only". Perhaps I need to dig around more...

stuff nz and tv3 have constant video updates. tv3 is a little sluggish during the day but I put that down to extreme traffic.

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Right, that's what I went to - actually Sky News Australia was using the TV3 feed and it was very high quality.

TV3 deserves real credit, they did a great job in the circumstances.

I think you can watch video clips from TVNZ but I've never been able to get the live feed to work. I even wrote them about it and they said basically it is their policy not to broadcast full news shows outside NZ because of their agreements with overseas news organizations, which I kinda get, but it seemed ridiculous to be region-blocking live feeds of the quake. Especially when other networks don't do that.

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They give an option for NZ and International and for much of today it was a live feed on the international.

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I'm sorry to ask, because I want this to work obviously, but I can't see a domestic/international access option anywhere. I'm looking at the live feed page now, Silverlight is installed and I'm getting the "you're outside NZ and we can't show you" message.

Can you give me an idea of what is in the URL after TVNZ Co NZ?

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Wow, I just googled it and found it. I still can't find any way to navigate to it on the site - it isn't listed under the live feeds they offer that are all blocked. I guess I should have Googled.

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I saw some footage and the Japanese were standing around while the CTV building with dogs and thermal cameras, while the NZ fire-fighters were still hosing down smouldering rubble. Heavy machinery was lifting off steel. The next caption showed the police unwrapping a body bag. It seems to me, just by the body language of the Japanese rescuers, that they have no expectation of life coming from the CTV building either. The alive that perished there may have perished in an earth oven.

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Bobbafett, 'earth oven' come on, bounty hunter or not, you have to be more tactful.

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My neighborhood kombini has a box out already collecting donations. Every time I buy a beer there I drop in the change.

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