A SERIES of about 20 aftershocks rocked the earthquake-hit city of Christchurch overnight, amid warnings of another big tremor in coming days.
Another quake did hit New Zealand today, but on the North Island, where a magnitude 5.2 tremor was felt on the east coast near Palmerston North, but caused no damage.
Saturday’s powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake in the South Island city of Christchurch smashed buildings and homes, wrecked roads and disrupted the central city, though nobody was killed and only two people were seriously injured.
The city centre remained cordoned off by troops today, with only building owners and workers allowed in to begin clearing up the mess – with much of the centre taking on the mantle of a ghost town.
More than 100 aftershocks, ranging from magnitude 3.2 to 5.4, have rocked the region since Saturday’s major quake.
Overnight, about 20 shocks including two of magnitude 5.4 rattled the city, and quake experts said aftershocks likely will continue for several weeks – and the worst of them may be yet to come.
“It is still possible that we’ll have a magnitude-6 in the next week, and people ought to be aware of that, particularly if they are around structures which are already damaged,” said Ken Gledhill, a monitor at the geological agency GNS Science. “For a shallow earthquake like this, they will go on for weeks.”
Prime Minister John Key called off a planned nine-day trip to Britain and France, citing what he called the quake zone’s continuing “instability”.
Mr Key was to have met with British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and with his wife, Bronagh, to have spent a weekend with Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II at her Scottish castle, Balmoral.
Mr Key yesterday warned that New Zealand’s economic recovery will suffer a setback from the damage wrought by the powerful quake.
“There will be considerable disruption to the (regional) and national economy in the short term,” but activity should pick up as reconstruction gains momentum, he said. The government plans to pay at least 90 per cent of the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to rebuild the city’s water, waste water and road infrastructure, Mr Key said.
Saturday’s quake near Christchurch ripped open a new fault line in the earth’s surface, destroying hundreds of buildings and cutting power to the region.
Mr Key, who toured the city’s damaged areas over the weekend, said 430 houses and another 70 buildings, many of them older structures, were already earmarked for demolition because of damage caused by the quake. Around 100,000 of the region’s 160,000 homes had sustained some damage, he said.
“I was awe-struck by the power of the earthquake and the damage it has caused in the city,” he told reporters. “It was miraculous that nobody was killed.”
New Zealand sits above an area where two tectonic plates collide. The country records more than 14,000 earthquakes a year – but only about 150 are felt by residents. Fewer than 10 a year do any damage.
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