Brad Heap » Earthquake

Thoughts and feelings on the Christchurch earthquake from Australia

Brad Heap — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 07:23:42 +0000

On Tuesday afternoon the worst natural disaster to ever hit New Zealand struck in the form of an Earthquake almost directly under the city of Christchurch. My initial reaction was shock that something like this could hit Christchurch twice in six months, and then the realisation that this is much worse than before. It took an anxious 30 hours but I can report that all of my family and friends are safe, although some of them have had their houses destroyed.

The use of social media, in particular Twitter, has been really helpful in getting in touch and finding out about the status of people over the past few days. At the same time it has also meant that bad news and rumours have travelled incredibly quickly. Despite not coming from Christchurch at times it has felt like I have. New Zealand’s two degrees of separation means that everyone will know someone who is involved and collectively we are in mourning.

Unfortunately some people in Sydney (certainly not all) don’t understand this collective bond. I have had a really tough day at university where I have literally been told I shouldn’t care, worry, be upset, or shocked because my family is safe and that is all that matters. Or even better “you weren’t upset because of the Queensland floods, you shouldn’t be upset about Christchurch.” But I am upset, I am in shock, these are my friends, my family, and their community that has been torn apart and destroyed in this.

I am sick of people shooting off their mouths with comments like “NZ has poor building standards” or “whatever, these events happen” sort of comments. The reality is this: if you don’t know what is going on please don’t shoot your mouth off. It is hard being so far away, it is mentally tough, part of me wants to get on the next flight into New Zealand and put my hands to work.

Most people in Australia have never experienced an earthquake. I have only been in a few small ones – three I think. And look, New Zealand gets earthquakes, we are not called the shaky isles for nothing! From a young age we are trained in school to duck and cover in event of an earthquake, we have earthquake drills like you have fire drills. Ads regularly run on TV telling us to check on our emergency kits. And a few times a year an earthquake will occur that causes minor damage, it is a fact of life.

However, despite all this preparation, and all the warnings about that one day “the big one” will hit, when it does things still hurt. Sure the response both local, national and international has been swift and impressive, and many people have survived because of this. But this does not stop the pain of loss, it does not make it nothing to worry about, and it does not prepare us to be not upset – so if you don’t understand this please just keep quiet.

Kia Kaha, Christchurch.

Other peoples views and experience:

Layton Duncan

Cate Owen

Sunday’s Australian Evening News Reports on Christchurch Earthquake

Brad Heap — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 23:14:38 +0000

This will make @dannews a very happy person.

5pm – 10 News

6pm – 7News Sydney

6.30pm – SBS World News Australia

7pm – ABC1 News NSW

Australian Evening News Reports on Christchurch Earthquake

Brad Heap — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:22:26 +0000

These are the reports from various TV channels on today’s earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. Channels 9 and 10 are missing because the broadcast aired at the same time as 7News.

5pm ABC News 24:

6pm 7News Sydney:

6.30 SBS World News Australia:

7pm ABC1 NSW News:

There was an Earthquake?

Brad Heap — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:13:34 +0000

On Wednesday night the biggest earthquake in 80 years struck New Zealand however you could be forgiven for possibly not even knowing yet given that the New Zealand media appear to be the only causalities of the quake.

The quake struck at 9:22 pm, and the epicentre was located in Dusky Sound at the south-west corner of the South Island. Its magnitude of 7.8 makes its size comparable with the Buller (or Murchison) earthquake of 1929 and the damaging Hawke’s Bay earthquake of 1931.

Now 7.8 is huge, it is the same size as the quake that struck Sichuan, China in 2008 and bigger then the earthquake that hit Kobe, Japan in 1995. At first it was assigned a size of 8.2 and it sent a small tidal wave across the Tasman that hit parts of Sydney. But you knew all that right? Because the media reported it right? No? Oh.

In fact the New Zealand media and civil defense response to this whole event has been really poor. On Wednesday night I got the majority of my news through Twitter (around 35 updates per second at times) and any major development would break on that at least 15 minutes ahead of any news website. To make matters worse after the earthquake a Tsunami warning was issued for NZ. This was not reported on the news until around 10.30pm at which point it had been canceled (however they reported it as valid).

Within minutes of the quake the news media also had reporters on the scene ready for life crosses and the like right? No. Because this wasn’t Auckland it was obvious not news. In fact the following morning the Herald was still reporting that the quake was only 6.6 and no mention of any Tsunami. Now one could partially forgive the news media for playing down the issue given that it happened in a very remote area of the country and that no one was killed or injured.

True, however this is not something to be sneezed at. We were very lucky this time, and by playing it down the news media is not helping. Because if another quake strikes sometime in the future and hits a more populated area how many people will just attempt to carry on as normal even if something is seriously wrong?

For the aussie take on the quake check this out: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25787792-421,00.html

In particular:

“The Australian Bureau of Meteorology said small tsunamis, followed by unusual current movements, were detected at Spring Bay in southern Tasmania at 10.05pm and Port Kembla, south of Sydney, at 10.06pm.”

The Geonet report, very detailed now, however this took nearly two days to become fully up to date: http://www.geonet.org.nz/news/article-jul-16-2009-fiordland-quake-biggest-for-80-years.html

At least they get how serious it was

“the remoteness of the epicentre, means that New Zealand has been very fortunate – if this earthquake had happened anywhere else it would have caused huge damage”.

And some more details on the “non-existent” tsunami

A small tsunami was generated by this earthquake, with the tide gauge at Jackson Bay, near Haast, recording a wave of 1 metre (peak to trough). An Australian gauge located out at sea, south-west of New Zealand, also detected a small wave some time after the main earthquake, which may have been generated by a landslip into the sea.

1 metre is pretty big. Not huge. But still big.

The USGS website is where I got a lot of information from on the night. It updates a lot faster than Geonet: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009jcap.php

Also Tsunami info through NOAA: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/?region=0

Of Earthquakes and Supervolcaneos

Brad Heap — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:47:14 +0000

First it was Geonet reporting that Lake Taupo had increased activity: http://geonet.org.nz/news/article-dec-12-2008-monitoring-activity-at-taupo.html

Now it is time for Yellowstone as well to increase in activity: Earthquake swarms around Yellowstone super volcano – World – NZ Herald News

It seems that we are all doomed.

And Geonet is also reporting that 2008 was quiet: http://geonet.org.nz/news/article-jan-12-2009-volcanic-activity-in-new-zealand-2008.html

I guess it is the calm before the storm.