Christchurch Earthquake

Tuesday, February 22, at approximately 12:50pm, Christchurch, New Zealand and the surrounding areas were hit by a 6.3 earthquake that destroyed much of the central business district (CBD) resulting in a current death toll of 123, with over 200 people still reported missing. A State of National Emergency has been declared. Many people have lost their homes. Most utilities have suffered outages, and are compromised, including power, water, internet, phone service, and sewer. Those who are still in stable homes and have not fled the city to outlying areas are faced with clean-up of liquefaction (a sand and sewage sludge pushed up through the earth by the earthquake), frequent aftershocks, and a lack of common resources like clean water, food, and fuel.

With power (and internet) being restored to most houses yesterday, we have put a call out to our Christchurch-based members to see if all are okay and have the resources they need.

The response so far has been very positive with only minor injuries and damage reported.

We will keep you updated as best we can.

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