6.3 in Christchurch, New Zealand; Kiwi FJ brothers, are you ok?

[Pat Conlon]

From the experience of living within 10 miles of the San Andreas fault, 6.3 is a good shake, we hope you guys are ok.  Pat

[Ned]

Thanks Pat and Ed and others for your concern. I'm lucky to be 1000km north, but the city of Christchurch (2nd largest in NZ) has been devastated. 65 confirmed dead so far and that's really big here and it's expected to go as high as 400 with all the missing people and collapsed buildings. My sister-in-law and family live very close to the city and she teaches in  central city school where she was still stuck with some kids who hadn't been collected at 9pm.
6.3 is a lot smaller than the 7.2 last September but this one was only 5km deep and less than 10km from the city centre. It was felt from Invercargill in the far south to Taupo in the North Island which is a long way. To make matters worse it's now raining there.
My daughter has to fly down there tomorrow and they will probably be ferrying the injured out to other hospitals.
I don't know if any of our members live down there but my thoughts go out to all there.

Ned (from the shaky islands)

[craigo]

First, hope that all the FJ'ers in New Zealand are safe.  The pics of the damage to Christchurch shows major destruction. So very sorry for the lost and injured there.  We will be praying for all of you.

God Bless,

CraigO and wife
90FJ1200

[Arnie]

I'm wondering if any of the members of this list are from Christchurch.  There's a late model FJ cruising through some of the pice I've seen from there.  Christchurch was a beautiful city and had some lovely buildings.  The ongoing episodes of disasters just doesn't seem to stop.
Hope everybody stays safe.

Arnie

[TRoy]

Hey ! I saw one, too! pretty sure it was the pink stripe edition. In this video @ 1:16

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12541172

[Ned]

Things are really crap down there. My Sis-in-law has power on again but no water and pouring a bucket of water down the toilet results in big bubbles in the back garden from the broken sewer line. Their place is sitting in a pool of liquefaction crud. One of the kids in her class has lost a parent and that's why she was stuck at school till late. The searchers say there are at least 300 people still unaccounted for and about 100 of them were in the Canterbury TV building which is totally collapsed. The big hotel next door is leaning over at a precarious angle and likely to roll over any time.

I spotted the FJ. That clip has been played over many times on the news. I know there are lots of FJs still on the road here but don't personally know of anyone in Christchurch.

Thanks go out to all those around the world who are rushing here to help especially the USAR teams from OZ and the US of A.

Ned