Saturday, February 26, 2011

Christchurch earthquake - message from one of our associates

Hi All,

The latest death toll is nearly 130 with over 200 still missing including tourists from over 20 countries.

My guess is that the final toll may not be known for a long time yet as there is such a huge amount of debris to be shifted. They say now that over 30% of buildings in Christchurch have been destroyed. There is a huge effort being made now to relocate people to be billeted out around NZ & many even taking advantage of cheap flights & going to Oz & other places to stay until the utilities here are sorted. Many, of course, have no homes to go back to.

The population of Christchurch was over 300,000 but not anymore. It’s going to take many years for the city to rebuild to the level it was pre-quake I fear.

We are all ok out here in Rangiora and it’s unbelievable that so much damage is only 25 km from here.

We have all lost people we know and in my case several people who were killed in the CTV building used to work for me when I had Vidpro in Christchurch. My old company building wasn’t affected too much and the present owner told me that they were able to get cameras & gear out before the whole area was closed off. So Vidpro (still called that) is now helping TVNZ cover the earthquake story.

Unfortunately Sarah’s son Aaron lost his home and he is getting married at Easter so a big blow there.

Best regards to you all,
Sarah & Jerry
 
Footnote
Last Tuesday's events have cast a pall over us too, and it's hard to concentrate on normal matters.  The jokes that Canterbury people made last September about rock and roll city are absent this time. Our thoughts go to all those in the region who have suffered injury and loss.

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