Earthquake New Zealand

Once again I have to update this article with the devastating news of yet another earthquake in New Zealand. Whilst I am glad to report that my friend in New Zealand is safe (she lives in Wellington) my heart and prayers go out to the families of over 65 people that died in the last earthquake that hit Christchurch.

If you are / were in New Zealand during the earthquake or planned to be there or even your family and friends might suspect that you could have been there: Please phone or text home! More than 250 people are still reported missing and the authorities do need to know who is really missing and how isn't in order to concentrate their rescue efforts better! For more information see Lissie's Blog Post 'Please Phone Home'.

It is kind of curious that the first person I thought about when hearing about the recent (3^rd September 2010) earthquake in New Zealand was fellow hubber Lissie. I know here online since, uh oh, perhaps 4 or 5 years? And I knew that she is currently living in New Zealand, oops! Before you now freak out, Lissie is ok, I actually chatted with her some minutes ago on Skype. She just has woken up to the news of the earthquake, having slept peacefully through all of our concerns about her well being ;-) But, actually, I really shouldn't have worried at all, in the end she is a trained geologist that creates occasionally website related to slope stability, earthquakes, landslides, weather and other geological and meteorological delights! She even has published two hubs here on hubpages about Earthquake Survival and the 1931 earthquake in Napier and the lessons that can be learned from it! But back to the current events:

Reacting to recent events with a hub (or any other web 2.0 property for that matter) is always a two-sided sword. On one hand web 2.0 applications like Hubpages are ideal to consolidate such information as about the recent New Zealand earthquake in one space, but on the other hand it has the bitter by-taste of taking advantage of recent events that have affected the lives of many people. Nevertheless, the internet and its ways of communication have become a way for many to keep up with recent events, so please allow me to try to make the most of this platform to not only keep people informed about them, but also to provide some background information about earthquakes in New Zealand and the pacific in general.

Keeping up with events as they unfold is easy since the internet become common place in most households where I live. On a more somber note, that is the third time I went through this, checking on the well being of friends that live far away from me, I mean. The other two occasions were the bombings in Madrid and London. I lived in each country as it happened and I learned the hard way what works and what doesn't work when it comes to checking up on unfolding events via the internet in a crisis situation. Here my personal favorites (if you can call them this):

Follow the Situation on Twitter

Twitter is all about crowd sourcing and you can count on the crowds to keep you updated to the best of their abilities. Just enter a search like 'earthquake' or 'earthquake NZ' in the Twitter search bar and you will be presented with a related stream of tweeted news ;-) Evaluation of the facts is up to you ;-)

Use text /SMS messages, don't call!

Something I learned during the bombings in Spain and the UK, calling a mobile is futile in a mass emergency situation, the nets are overloaded, but sending a text message has much more prospect of having success as they are queued and tried to send out over and over again. So, if you are in the middle of trouble and want to re-assure your family and other loved ones that you are fine >>> Send a text, don't call! You have much more chance of having success that way.

International Forums

Another method of checking up on online friends are international forums you belong to. Lissie and I both hang around at The Keyword Academy and, lo and behold, shortly after the New Zealand earthquake happened, people started to check up on her via forum messages. Same on an international microstock forum I am part of, I myself started a thread on Shutterstock just to make sure my online photographer friends are ok. And yes, they are, thanks God.

Earthquake February 2011

• At least 65 died, death toll is expected to rise.
• 150 to up to 200 people are thought to be trapped in building ruins, awaiting rescue.
  
• Epicenter was again close to Christchurch, below Lyttelton, southeast of Christchurch, at a depth of five kilometres.
• Strength of the earthquake 6.3 on the Richter scale.
• Aftershocks continue, making it urgent to free the people that are trapped in collapsed buildings.
• Christchurch airport is closed, but the hospital remains open, despite being damaged.
• Electricity is lost in most of the city.
• No news about a possible Tsunami danger so far.
  

Earthquake 2010

So far it is confirmed that:

• 3^rd September 2010 at 04:35 a.m. local time an earthquake hit New Zealand which had a strength of over 7 on the Richter scale.

• It was followed around half an hour later by at least one point 5 earthquake.

• The epicenter was close to Christchurch (30km / 19mi northwest of), the second largest town in New Zealand, and its depth was around 33 kilometers / 20 miles.

• Heavy damage was reported throughout the island and around 500 000+ people felt it in different intensity throughout the islands.

• So far two people are reported to be seriously and gravely injured, in both cases due to being injured by parts falling off buildings.

• Electricity and general power and water cuts are reported throughout the area.

• And, perhaps most importantly, no Tsunami warning has been issued so far.

Compare this to the Haiti Earthquake

Food for thought: An earthquake of similar strength hit Haiti earlier this year, but with a far more devastating effect on the population. Why was that so? Because New Zealand has and had the money to build their homes, houses and official buildings in a manner that made them resistant to the influence and impact of the seismic forces. Haiti was -and is!- poor and didn't have the same resources. Because they were poor they suffered far more, because they suffered more damage, they will stay poor for longer and will continue to suffer. A suffering that could be avoided if and when earth resources would be shared equally and justly between earth inhabitants – but here I am dreaming as this will never happen, at least not during my lifetime I fear.

Oh, famous last words, don't forget to check out Lissie's last hub about the Christchurch Earthquake ;-) she just posted it. I think it is as close as an eyewitness accord as you can come here on Hubpages, at least until internet access is restored in Christchurch and surroundings and more hubs are getting posted about this!