Strong aftershock brings further damage to Christchurch
The New Zealand city of Christchurch was on Wednesday hit by its most damaging aftershock since the devastating 7.0 quake, causing further damage, residents and officials said.
The 5.1-magnitude aftershock struck at 7.49 am (1949 GMT yesterday) sending frightened residents rushing into the streets, cutting already fragile power supplies and bringing down loose material from already damaged buildings.
The aftershock, the latest in a series, was a shallow 6 km deep and much closer to the city centre than Saturday's quake, which caused billions of dollars of damage, the official geological monitoring service Geonet said.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said the intensity of the latest quake reduced many emergency workers to tears. "It was a devastatingly, vicious sharp blow to the city," he told NewstalkZB.
"This was a terrifying moment. We have just had to evacuate our Civil Defence headquarters. "We have got staff in tears, we have got fire engines going through the middle of the city, power is out and a lot of people are very, very churned up by that."
"I'm bloody terrified all over again," resident Colleen Simpson told the Stuff website. Christchurch City Council spokeswoman Diane Keenan said: "The jolt was absolutely huge. A really big, stiff jolt. And it was vertical, rather than side to side like the first one. If you were in a car the road moved up and down."
The latest quake came as staff were making their way to work at the few shops and companies in the inner city which have been able to open this week and they were immediately told to leave.
Parker said assessment teams were heading into the city to check the damage. "We were restarting to think, maybe, just maybe, we are over the worst of this and now we have had this shocking event."
More than 100 aftershocks have rocked the area since Saturday.
Post new comment