Earthquake likely NZ's deadliest disaster
Source: Agencies |
February 27, 2011, Sunday
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Print Edition
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NEW Zealand's premier said the Christchurch quake may be the country's worst disaster ever, as officials raised the toll yesterday to 145 dead and more than 200 missing while giving a grim prognosis for the city's downtown.
Engineers and planners said the city's decimated central area may be completely unusable for months to come and that at least a third of the buildings must be razed and rebuilt after Tuesday's 6.3-magnitude quake.
On the outer edge of the central district, Brent Smith watched in tears as workers demolished the 1850s-era building where he lived and ran a bed and breakfast and where antique jugs and a US$6,000 Victorian bed were reduced to shards and firewood.
His three daughters hugged him, also weeping.
"You don't know whether to laugh or cry, but I've been doing more of the latter," Smith said.
Prime Minister John Key said the government would announce an aid package tomorrow for an estimated 50,000 people who will be out of work for months due to the closure of downtown.
Key spent some of the afternoon talking to families who lost loved ones in the disaster.
"This may be New Zealand's single-most tragic event," Key said.
The death toll rose to 145 after additional bodies were pulled from the wreckage, Police Superintendent David Cliff said.
He added that there was an additional list of more than 200 people and that there were "grave fears" about their fate.
His comments suggest the eventual death toll could make this New Zealand's deadliest disaster ever, surpassing the 1931 Napier earthquake on North Island in which at least 256 people died.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker assured relatives of the missing - including people from several countries who have converged on this southern New Zealand city of 350,000 - that every effort was being made to locate any remaining survivors.
Rescue and recovery efforts were hampered by continuing aftershocks, which sent masonry tumbling down.
No one was found alive overnight as a multinational team of more than 600 rescuers scoured central district of Christchurch, although a paramedic reported hearing voices in one destroyed building early yesterday, Police Superintendent Russel Gibson said.
But it turned out to be a false alarm as it was just a cat, Gibson said.
Police have said up to 120 bodies may be entombed in the ruins of the downtown CTV building alone, where dozens of foreign students, including some Chinese, from an international school were believed trapped.
Still, Gibson said rescuers weren't completely ruling out good news.
"I talked to experts who say we've worked on buildings like this overseas and we get miracles. New Zealand deserves a few miracles," he said.
Engineers and planners said the city's decimated central area may be completely unusable for months to come and that at least a third of the buildings must be razed and rebuilt after Tuesday's 6.3-magnitude quake.
On the outer edge of the central district, Brent Smith watched in tears as workers demolished the 1850s-era building where he lived and ran a bed and breakfast and where antique jugs and a US$6,000 Victorian bed were reduced to shards and firewood.
His three daughters hugged him, also weeping.
"You don't know whether to laugh or cry, but I've been doing more of the latter," Smith said.
Prime Minister John Key said the government would announce an aid package tomorrow for an estimated 50,000 people who will be out of work for months due to the closure of downtown.
Key spent some of the afternoon talking to families who lost loved ones in the disaster.
"This may be New Zealand's single-most tragic event," Key said.
The death toll rose to 145 after additional bodies were pulled from the wreckage, Police Superintendent David Cliff said.
He added that there was an additional list of more than 200 people and that there were "grave fears" about their fate.
His comments suggest the eventual death toll could make this New Zealand's deadliest disaster ever, surpassing the 1931 Napier earthquake on North Island in which at least 256 people died.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker assured relatives of the missing - including people from several countries who have converged on this southern New Zealand city of 350,000 - that every effort was being made to locate any remaining survivors.
Rescue and recovery efforts were hampered by continuing aftershocks, which sent masonry tumbling down.
No one was found alive overnight as a multinational team of more than 600 rescuers scoured central district of Christchurch, although a paramedic reported hearing voices in one destroyed building early yesterday, Police Superintendent Russel Gibson said.
But it turned out to be a false alarm as it was just a cat, Gibson said.
Police have said up to 120 bodies may be entombed in the ruins of the downtown CTV building alone, where dozens of foreign students, including some Chinese, from an international school were believed trapped.
Still, Gibson said rescuers weren't completely ruling out good news.
"I talked to experts who say we've worked on buildings like this overseas and we get miracles. New Zealand deserves a few miracles," he said.
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