MikeLigalig.com

(AP)

Updated 12:16 a.m. EST

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand - A powerful earthquake struck New Zealand's already-bruised city of Christchurch on Tuesday, collapsing buildings, burying vehicles under debris and sending rescuers scrambling to help trapped people amid reports of multiple deaths.

The 6.3-magnitude quake hit the country's second-biggest city on a busy weekday afternoon and closer
to downtown than a major quake that damaged Christchurch last September but caused no deaths
when it struck before dawn on a weekend.

Police said there were reports of multiple fatalities from the latest temblor in the city of 350,000,
while Prime Minister John Key told Parliament it was still too soon to confirm the deaths.

The quake destroyed the spire of the iconic stone Christchurch Cathedral, which toppled into a central city square,
and police said there was a report of two buses crushed under falling buildings.

Video footage showed some multistorey buildings collapsed in on themselves, and others with walls that had collapsed
into the streets, strewn with bricks and shattered concrete.
Sidewalks and roads were cracked and split, and thousands of dazed, screaming and crying residents wandered
through the streets as sirens blared. Groups of people helped victims clutching bleeding
wounds, and others were carried to private vehicles in makeshift stretchers fashioned from rugs or bits of debris.

The airport was closed, and Christchurch Hospital was briefly evacuated before it was deemed safe and patients were returned.
Power and telephone lines were knocked out, and pipes burst, flooding the streets with water.
Some cars parked on the street were buried under rubble.

Some people were stuck in office towers and firefighters climbed extension ladders to pluck people trapped on roofs to safety.
A crane lifted a team of rescuers on a platform to one group of survivors in a high rise.
Plumes of gray smoke drifted into the air at several points around the city from fires burning in the rubble.

A search and rescue team was being flown in from Australia to help in the recovery.

75 confirmed dead... 

Quote from: taga tigbao on February 23, 2011, 12:56:53 PM
75 confirmed dead... 

looy kaayo ug  over 300 missing pa gyud...udto pa gyud nahitabo nga
            busy sa trabaho ang dinha sa sulod sa cathedral

May God comfort the people of New Zealand in this time of loss.

God Bless New Zealand.

There are FIlipino casualties in the said natural disaster. 

Quote from: taga tigbao on February 24, 2011, 03:35:22 PM
There are FIlipino casualties in the said natural disaster. 

I have a cousin a Registered Nurse who moved to New Zealand and currently trying
  to be licensed there, thank the Lord okay ra  kono siya ug iyang  pamilya ug
  unfortunately naa sila sa Christchurch puyo.
She said everywhere she  turned around daghang Pilipino kono  didto, it's a beautiful place,
  pero  tay-ogonon kaayo.
 

Others were not so fortunate...



CEBU. Relatives of the Filipina nurses trapped in a fallen building in New Zealand step outside the St. Francis Xavier Chapel in Cebu City, after a mass offered for their loved ones’ safety. (Arni Aclao)

Whos is to blame for this calamity: God or Nature? RIP to those who passed away.

Pwede man tingali wa na lay i-blame...