Christchurch earthquake

[Forumadmin]

Our thoughts are with you.

[p.p.]

keep up your head's.
my thoughts ar also with you all.

peter

[The Bradford man]

Thank you. The citys in such a bad way. So many historic buildings are pretty much all gone.
Even new buildings are in a bad way.

My Jowett 7 chassie fell off the saw hourses

[Keith Andrews]

Put simply...its bad....
75 dead, and expected to rise far more, 300 still missing...injured heaps...homes destoryed...
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/natural-disas ... d=10708163

And what is amazing is how fast the Aussies hit the ground running here, just over 12 hrs.
And how CD, services, recuse teams mobilised literally in minutes.

[The Bradford man]

They have given up looking for survivers in the CTV Building.

[PAUL BEAUMONT]

My thoughts are with you all! I Simply cannot imagine such a disaster!

Paul

[Forumadmin]

A report from someone close to the scene.

Poor Chch. They got hit with a 7.1 quake back in Sept and have had to
endure several thousand aftershocks till yesterday when a 6.3 aftershock
hit them. This shock was just 3 miles underground and destroyed the
Central Business District. That is "old" Chch with many fine old brick
heritage buildings and I'm afraid those bricks came down at lunchtime
and killed many people.

We have about 65 dead but that is expected to rise very significantly to
possibly several hundreds. We think there are about 100 people trapped
in collapsed buildings who are alive but we still have many bodies still
lying in the streets that we cant get to because we are still getting
aftershocks of between 4 and 5 on the Richter Scale at about one every
40 minutes or so and they are lying near brick buildings that are still
collapsing.

Its going to be very grim, if we lose 200 that would be the equivalent
of the US losing over 15,000.

Being in the "Shaky Isles", as the Aussies call us, we are well prepared
and resourced for earthquakes and that system has swung into place. In
addition we had 116 Singapore soldiers doing a joint exercise with our
people outside Chch (we train the Singapore military) and more experts
are flying in from that country this morning. The Aussie Urban Recovery
teams arrived overnight with more on the way. Importantly the very
skilled Japanese earthquake recovery teams are on their way along with
experts from Taiwan and of course the US contingent will be with us a
little later. We likely don't need all that resource but better to be on
the safe safe.

By coincidence we had an Australia/NZ medical conference going on in the
city and these surgeons rushed into the streets to lend a hand with
triage, and by another incredible coincidence there was also an
international conference going on in town of experts in Earthquake
management!

Another problem is "liquification". Chch is built on an ancient riverbed
and the very violent shaking has turned the subsoil and deeper layers
into water and mud.. this burst to the surface and swamped streets and
houses in waist deep sludge and created minor tsunamis which rushed down
into lower lying areas. Whilst that has subsided the continued heavy
shaking is not allowing the subsoil to settle.

What amazed me was that within 2 hours there were three properly staffed
and equipped triage centres operating under tents in the open ground in
parks near the CBD despite there being no road access. The Army
choppered docs and equipment in that quick.. they needed to because
there are 26,000 full time employees there plus thousands of tourists
and visitors and most people had some sort of trauma.

In a grim way it looked kind of strange to see men in suits and ties
piggy backing the injured into the parks and carrying people on ripped
off office doors. We saw lots of shots of brave businessmen and workmen
clambering through the rubble, pulling bodies and the injured out.. and
running for their lives as more shocks sent more bricks tumbling down..
but back they went when the shaking stopped.

There are still buildings with trapped people that are on fire this
morning, helicopters with water buckets are dumping water on them and
then the medics are wriggling in through the smoke, pulling out some
people, amputating limbs on the seriously pinned and rushing them to
hospital. There are insanely brave things still going on.. cranes
lifting huge blocks of concrete with men underneath cutting people free,
buildings which were 6 stories high are now just 20 foot piles of rubble.

There are plenty of good stories as well. Six women (and a baby) on the
fifth floor of their building rode it down and then simply stepped into
the street through where the wall had been.. not a scratch.

So.. its very bad, but the situation is under control, and lets be
thankful that the 30,000 in and around the CBD are OK.

[Alan Stanley]

Thank you to all those from the Jowett family from around the world. There are posting of well wishes on this site and I have received on behalf of the Club emails from the UK, Australia, China and USA, hoping that all is well.

From initial information so far received I understand that there have been no personal injuries to members or families, but there may have been some minor property damage. We all hope this is correct and Jowett members, their families, their homes and cars have escaped serious effects.

Despite this we cannot perceive what it is like in the city with the damage and after shocks affecting everyone in some way.

Our thoughts are with you

Regards

Alan Stanley
President
Jowett Car Club of New Zealand (Inc)

[Amy]

That's good news, Alan. We're thinking of you over here.

Amy.

[ian Howell]

To all in NZ who are taking the trouble to let others know what is happening - many thanks. I am also sure that I am not the only one in the 'family' who is watching your posts with admiration and awe.

I am also sure you have much more important things to do, and of course our newsreels in the UK are full of updates.

But somehow it brings us closer to 'hear' from those directly affected. How lucky we are in the UK not to have this risk (well not since the 1800s, and then quite mild in comparison).

[Alastair Berney]

Haven't logged on for a while, but things are still shaking here. Still many strong aftershocks, even as such a short time ago as last night (21st June). My 1930 Jowett Seven is currently up on axle stands as I am getting the rear hubs built up on the axle tapers. It hasn't as yet fell off the stands but my neighbour's VW has.

[ian Howell]

Alastair: -

Thanks for the PM. What progress with the hubs? Is there anything I should know in the way of finangles when dealing with back axles? I made and fitted new shackle pins and bushes all round for mine.

I have made some progress in the last month or so - new doors made for the front but unable to complete them until I am ready to fabric the body.

Currently working on the rear doors. I had hoped to save most of the material but when I got the nearside one off, the woodwork was more rotted than had been visible when the door was jammed shut.

Now I have at present run out of ash timber. More on order but it ain't 'arf a price!

Offside front wing seems to be the next major project.

[ian Howell]

Message forwarded from Alastair Berney: -

Just a plug for our National Rally next year, it is the 50th anniversary of the Jowett Car Club of New Zealand and it is being held at Nelson in the South Island on the 12th-16th April 2012. If you know of someone who might want to attend please contact me if there is no advert in the Jowetteer magazine.

Any takers?