Christchruch Quake Update

From the News Updates via Yahoo

Death

The official death toll has been revised down to 32.

While prime minister John Key said 65 people had been confirmed dead last night, Civil Defence national director John Hamilton said this morning that 32 deaths have been confirmed.

He said police have only confirmed 32 deaths as they have to go through an official identification and notification process.

There have been incredible tales of survival, but the death toll is still expected to rise as that process is completed.

A woman with a baby in her arms died instantly when she was hit by falling debris in yesterday's 6.3 earthquake.

A passerby went to her assistance in Christchurch's Cashel St Mall, but she was dead when he arrived.

Some people took the child away, but it was not known how badly hurt the baby was, eyewitness Tom Brittenden, 25, told The Press.

Mr Brittenden was doing repair work on a cafe when the earthquake hit and he ran out on to the street.

It looked like the woman had run out of a store in panic and been hit by falling debris, he said.

"We tried to pull these big bricks off [them].... she was gone.

"They just put a blanket on [the woman] because she had already gone."


Power outage

About half of Christchurch remains without power following today's magnitude 6.3 quake, and lines company Orion Energy is warning it will take several days to make repairs.

Up to 80 percent of customers lost power when the quake hit just before 1pm and Orion had managed to restore it to some.

"We have found serious damage to both major cables and substations in the New Brighton and Dallington areas," Orion Energy chief executive Roger Sutton said.

"This is very substantial damage and it will take us two or three days establish a repair time," he said.

"We hope to get small pockets of these areas back on later tomorrow,but substantial repairs will take much longer."

The damage sustained was far more serious than any damage from the September 4 quake.

Damage throughout the area was more substantial, especially in the central city, Summer, Lyttelton and Heathcote areas.

"We have started to restore power back to areas west of Cathedral Square," Mr Sutton said.

"We now think we have 50 percent of power back on to Canterbury (but) there are still substantial areas of the city where we have not been able to access the damage at this stage."

Orion's main building was largely undamaged, Mr Sutton said.

"I was in our building on the ground floor, and I managed to get under a table, and then I went out into the street and it was an extraordinarily terrible sight."


Survivors 

Police say a large number of people have been pulled alive from collapsed Christchurch buildings as rescuers worked throughout the night under floodlights in a bid to rescue trapped earthquake victims.

The PGG building on Cambridge Terrace and the CTV building on the corner of Madras and Cashel Streets were the worst hit following yesterday's 6.3 magnitude quake, and "significant" numbers of people were inside.

Sixty-five people have been confirmed killed but there are fears the death toll will mount today as more bodies are found.

Police Superintendent Russell Gibson said this morning that since 1pm yesterday 22 people, including two with serious injuries, had been rescued from the PGG building and a further 22 people were believed still trapped.

There had been communication with at least three of these people inside the building and it was understood they were not hurt.

Eight people had also been rescued from the CTV building.

"It is thought a large number are still unaccounted for and work is ongoing to match up reports of missing people with specific locations and buildings."

There was a number of deceased people in both buildings, he said.

"The focus of Police and Urban Search and Rescue at this stage is the rescue of those still trapped, rather than the recovery of the dead.

"It is difficult to speculate on the total death toll as it is such a rapidly evolving situation.

"We know it will be significant and we know there are a lot of people going through the nightmare ordeal of waiting for news of their loved ones.

"All of the agencies involved in this operation are working as hard as possible to bring some clarity to the situation and some answers families and friends."

Rescuers have worked desperately through the night trying to find victims trapped in the Christchurch rubble following the quake which struck at 12.51pm 20km southeast of Christchurchh at a depth of 5km.

There have been dozens of aftershocks.

St John Ambulance said that two people were killed when hit by falling rocks while walking the Lyttelton's Crater Rim Track. They were believed to be the only victims from the area which was severely damaged.

The death toll is already the second highest from a New Zealand earthquake -- outranked only by the 256 people killed in the violent 7.9 1931 Hawke's Bay quake, whose 70th anniversary was marked earlier this month.

Christchurch Hospital's emergency department was extremely busy treating cuts, crush injuries, fractures, spinal injuries and serious wounds.

Police have not been able to supply numbers on how many they believe are trapped, or how many have so far been pulled from the wreckage of buildings. Some survivors have sent text messages that they were trapped in the rubble.

A state of emergency has been declared, which is expected to last five days.

The quake smashed into the city when the city was packed with lunch-hour shoppers and office workers.

It followed the massive 7.1 shake on September 4 last year but its effect were much more severe this time because of the shallowness of the quake.

Buildings that stood up to last year's event tumbled this time, weakened by the earlier shaking.

Civil Defence said that by midday 220 Search and Rescue personnel will be deployed and as many as 700 Search and Rescue personnel may be deployed within 48 hours.

Further teams from overseas are also on their way to join the effort as international offers assistance come in.

About 950 people spent the night at two welfare centres, at Hagley Park and Burnside High School, where blankets, food, sanitation were supplied.

Civil Defence will attempt to open more centres throughout the day.

Water, sewer and gas lines were ruptured by the quake and power lines and poles crashed, cutting electricity to one third of the city.

Eighty percent of the city has not water supply and people were urged to conserve water; not to shower, take baths of flush toilets.

Schools are closed today and people are urged to stay at home, and undertake essential travel only.

Prime Minister John Key flew to Christchurch yesterday and after a quick tour of the city described it as "utterly wrecked", adding "this is an absolute tragedy for Christchurch".

"We may well be witnessing New Zealand's darkest day," he said.