Sec­ond quake for Christchurch
Hours ahead face res­cuers fol­low­ing the dev­as­tat­ing, shal­low 6.3 on the Richter scale earth­quake which struck the heav­i­ly pop­u­lat­ed busi­ness area of Greater Christchurch in New Zealand.
There are ini­tial reports of 17 deaths in the sec­ond quake to hit since Sep­tem­ber last year. Under nor­mal arrange­ments mem­bers of the AREC will find their ser­vices in use again. Reports are expected.
Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and pow­er has been cut in many areas, and water sup­plies disrupted.
The utter dev­as­ta­tion has severe­ly dam­aged many of the major build­ings includ­ing the cathe­dral in cen­tral Christchurch. Near­by towns have also been affected.
While the 7.1 earth­quake last Sep­tem­ber was more than 30km under­ground, the lat­est 6.3 quake was a mere five kilo­me­tres in depth. It has been fol­lowed by major aftershocks.
— Jim Lin­ton, VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.