I know that the New Zealand earthquake has probably slipped off most media radar, but please keep people in your prayers. The state of emergency for Canterbury has been extended another 7 days, and some of the aftershocks are stronger than many earthquakes.
Just to put things in perspective – the earthquake in Haiti was 7.0, whereas the one in New Zealand was 7.1. One of the reasons why this earthquake did not result in any loss of life or many serious injuries is because of building codes and the types of buildings in New Zealand. That’s a blessing, but there is still a lot of work to be done.
There has been an estimated NZ$2 billion worth of damage {~US$1.45 billion}, and something like 5 out of every 8 homes are currently uninhabitable. There are many, many people who are still struggling and suffering – employees who cannot go to work, families who are displaced, students who have been forced to leave off their classes, elderly who are unable to move quickly and get to safety, etc. It’s a very stressful time for a lot of people.
As at any time when there’s stress, people are losing their tempers and have short fuses. There’s been a big jump in the reports of domestic violence, and many of the police officers in the area are feeling overwhelmed with both personal and professional duties {some 20 police officers have lost their homes}.
Please keep New Zealand, specifically the Christchurch and Canterbury areas, in your prayers. Here are a few blogs written by people living in the area, if you’d like more information.
If nothing else, just stop by to give them words of encouragement 🙂
That’s fine! Thanks for the mention 🙂
Hope you don’t mind – I posted your blog post on my Facebook. You give good perspective about the toll that goes beyond loss of life. I think you’re right that most of the world has already forgotten. My thoughts are with Christchurch.
Thank you 🙂
I’ll be keeping NZ in my prayers! It’s so sad how quickly the media attention shifts.