Latest update; 75 confirmed dead... Up to 300 unaccounted for... Eleven people rescued overnight from collapsed buildings... Largest/highest building in Christchurch
CBD (a hotel) has serious structural damage and engineers suspect it may also collapse at any stage... Safely zone cordon around this building has been widen as a result, for obvious safety reasons...
Approximate 17 aftershocks have occurred so far since the 6.3 quake, in the 4 to 5 magnitude range which are hampering the safely of search & rescue crews...
One rescue site
(6 story building that's pancaked) has become too unsafe for rescue crews to continue sifting through the rubble so they have been pulled off that site and move to help other rescue crews working on a 4 story building
(that's also pancaked), where some people that are trapped have been able to make cellphone calls to love ones, letting them know they are still alive...
Specialist rescue teams have already arrived to help with the rescue operations from Aussie... Specialist rescue teams
(1 each) are expected from UK, USA, Taiwan, Japan & Singapore in the next 24 to 48 hours....
300 Aussie cops are also on there way to Christchurch to assist...
Six looters have already been arrested... (my personal view is under the circumstances, they should all be given a fair trial, before they are shot) !!!
Aussie PM
(bless her heart) has insure that Australia is the first country to step up to the plate and has given $5 million to the earthquake relief fund.
(that's the bond that the Kiwi's & diggers have always had since WW1). We might nearly always beat them on the rugby field, but more often that not, they are nearly always thrashing us on the cricket field...
It will be interesting to see if other counties,
(one in particular) will step up to the plate also, to offer some sort of a donation to the relief fund, in-light of
"them" donating hundreds of millions dollars to the Haiti earthquake relief fund...
Not that I'm inferring that the people of Haiti didn't desperately need that relief !!!
Early estimates for the repair bill could be as high as the 16 billion dollars mark.... This doesn't include the nearly 8 billion that has already been spent on damage that was cause by the Sept 04 (2010) CHCH 7.1 earthquake...
Cheers, Mac...