2011

Hot on the heels of the Australian cyclone and floods, New Zealand’s south island has been hit by another earthquake. We have contacted members in the vicinity and have received the following:

Still standing! As I said last time, we ‘missed out’ on the September earthquake, but this time we were right in the middle of it. Three weeks ago I bought a dairy (corner shop to you in the UK!) in Opawa in Christchurch and was in the office/storeroom when the quake hit. It shook like nothing I have experienced before probably for about 20 seconds or so. Bottles of coke, sweets, and cans of food flew off the shelves and ended up literally all over the floor. I had only just finished tidying it up from the previous owner! But that was a pretty insignificant problem compared to other people’s. Unlike last time when the death toll was an unbelievable 0, this quake has taken 75 lives so far and undoubtably more will  follow. Thanks needs to go to the rescue workers and emergency teams from both here and Austraila, and offers of help also from the U.S  and U.K. among other countries.
The streets are in an unbelievable condition, the 1/2 hr trip that it normally takes to get into Chch, now takes 3 hrs, with many bridges impassable. With huge piles of sand, broken water mains, massive (car-size) holes to negotiate – makes motoring interesting to say the least! Iain Booth

Once again we thank you for your concerns!..Basically we are ok, but the town is trashed with loss of life for a lot of people this time… I have had emails from lots of overseas contacts, and its nice to know someone is thinking of us all…again we “THANK YOU !… Please pass on our thanks to all. Dave and Di Church

Hang in there, guys! I’m sure that Register members and J-enthusiasts worldwide will have you all in their thoughts.

 

2010

We have J-enthusiasts/members on New Zealand’s south island so I emailed a couple who were nearest to the earthquake that hit Christchurch recently. They have reported back:

Iain Booth: “Wow you are up with the news! despite a big earthquake, death toll 0 serious injuries 2. So not as bad as it could have been, but there is a lot of damage, 2 friends have lost their homes, fortunately we were away at the time, but we still felt the quake 650km away!! A lot of  damage has been inflicted on the old victorian brick buildings which is sad as it will take away a lot of the character of the city.”

Dave Ellis: “We both survived, had some damage… but we are both here. It was like a great locomotive train smashing thru the middle of the house, but there are other people, some we know, far worse than we are… I thank you for your concerns!!…..we are back to normal today power back on etc…  cheers to all, thanks again Di/Dave”