At least 75 were confirmed dead as of yesterday afternoon after an earthquake hit the area around Christchurch, New Zealand. With at least 300 more missing, the death toll is assumed to be on the rise, as those surviving under rubble tapped on their impromptu prisons to indicate to search teams where they were. The teams of rescuers searched using dogs, cranes, heavy equipment and their hands yesterday to pull at least 120 people from the rubble. The 6.3-magnitude earthquake is the nation’s worst in the last 80 years.
Noted police Superintendent Russell Gibson, "There are bodies littering the streets, they are trapped in cars, crushed under rubble and where they are clearly deceased our focus has turned to the living." Of the 75 already confirmed dead, Prime Minister John Key noted that 55 have been positively identified. Throughout the afternoon yesterday, rescuers continued to concentrate their efforts on about a dozen buildings that collapsed or were thoroughly damaged during the quake.
To maintain some semblance of order, military units patrolled streets as rescuers continued to work. Those who witnessed the tragedy without being hurt were in awe. Noted National Boehm, who was out on a lunch break when the quake hit in the early afternoon, "People were covered in rubble, covered in several tons of concrete. It was horrific." Oddly, the earthquake was so powerful that it actually shook a portion of ice from the nation’s largest glacier, which lies roughly 120 miles from the city of Christchurch. That alone seems an indication of just how powerful the earthquake truly was.
Japan's 8.9 magnitude quake triggers tsunami - video | World news ...
TV pictures show a vast wall of water carrying debris and even fires across a large swathe of coastal farmland near the city of Sendai.
Noted police Superintendent Russell Gibson, "There are bodies littering the streets, they are trapped in cars, crushed under rubble and where they are clearly deceased our focus has turned to the living." Of the 75 already confirmed dead, Prime Minister John Key noted that 55 have been positively identified. Throughout the afternoon yesterday, rescuers continued to concentrate their efforts on about a dozen buildings that collapsed or were thoroughly damaged during the quake.
To maintain some semblance of order, military units patrolled streets as rescuers continued to work. Those who witnessed the tragedy without being hurt were in awe. Noted National Boehm, who was out on a lunch break when the quake hit in the early afternoon, "People were covered in rubble, covered in several tons of concrete. It was horrific." Oddly, the earthquake was so powerful that it actually shook a portion of ice from the nation’s largest glacier, which lies roughly 120 miles from the city of Christchurch. That alone seems an indication of just how powerful the earthquake truly was.
Japan's 8.9 magnitude quake triggers tsunami - video | World news ...
TV pictures show a vast wall of water carrying debris and even fires across a large swathe of coastal farmland near the city of Sendai.
