At 12.51 pm on Tuesday, 22 February, the beautiful city of Christchurch, New Zealand, was devastated by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake.
This was only one of the hundreds of aftershocks, following the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that shook the city on the morning of Saturday 4 September 2010.
Miraculously, few people were injured in this huge shake for the city was asleep when it struck and despite its magnitude, its centre was 30 to 40 km west of the city centre. Christchurch was well on the way to recovering from this earlier devastation when the second major shake struck on Tuesday at a depth of only 5km.
Tuesday’s shake caused devastation that reduced many of the homes and buildings in the inner city to rubble. Over 120 people so far are known to have died, crushed by falling debris or within collapsing buildings. Over 200 people are listed as missing. Hundreds are injured, many of them severely.
The people of Christchurch have a strong spirit and they have a fine mayor in Bob Parker, whose civil defence leadership skills are second to none. But the people of Christchurch need you.
Please help by donating to the Red Cross 2011 Earthquake Appeal
or to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal
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