Christchurch Earthquake Stories Wanted

I am looking for stories about the Christchurch earthquake for a book I’m putting together. These can be from people who lived through the quake or those from out of town who have family and friends in Christchurch. The stories don’t have to be dramatic – just heartfelt and real. If you experienced emotional trauma, damage to property, helped out at the welfare centres, were involved in clean up, worked in a place that has been demolished etc, I’d love to hear from you. Email me and I’ll be in touch.

Debbie Roome

Christchurch Aftershocks 20th January 2011

At 6:03am on the 20th January, Christchurch was shaken by the 8th largest aftershock since the September earthquake. It measured 5.1 on the Richter scale and awoke many residents. The Earthquake Commission are treating it as a separate quake for claim purposes and received almost 100 claims in the first 12 hours. Most of these were for cracking.

The aftershock generated its own series of aftershocks and the measurements according to Canterbury Quake Live were as follows:

21-Jan 02:12am 7.48 4.4 V 51 tons
20-Jan 03:52pm 2.00 2.7 II 157 kg
20-Jan 12:36pm 5.00 3.9 III 11 tons
20-Jan 11:58am 2.00 2.9 II 306 kg
20-Jan 11:55am 5.00 2.7 II 197 kg
20-Jan 11:10am 5.00 3.9 III 10 tons
20-Jan 11:01am 2.00 3.1 III 611 kg
20-Jan 09:28am 5.00 2.6 II 142 kg
20-Jan 08:14am 13.04 3.2 III 1 tons
20-Jan 08:06am 13.47 4.0 IV 15 tons
20-Jan 08:02am 10.43 3.3 III 2 tons
20-Jan 06:28am 12.00 3.1 III 840 kg
20-Jan 06:03am 9.72 5.1 VI 576 tons

New Year after Christchurch Aftershocks

After a few weeks of relative peace from aftershocks, Christchurch has been subjected to a number of them starting with a swarm of about 30 on Boxing Day. These were followed with a number of jolts that have registered between 2.5 and 4.4 on the Richter scale. Details of the aftershocks can be found at Geonet and Canterbury Quake Live.

The New Year Celebration in Cathedral Square went ahead although evacuation plans were in place and the public had been asked to stay calm in the event of further aftershocks. Engineers declared the area safe although a number of buildings were still cordoned off following fresh damage from the Boxing Day aftershocks.

As Christchurch enters 2011, the city has already experienced a 4.4 aftershock and a series of smaller ones.

A Christchurch resident captured the motion of an aftershock on video and uploaded this to Youtube. Be sure to have your sound on as you watch.