New Zealand's Day of Agony

Christchurch, usually a bustling tourist gateway to the beautiful South Island, now looks like a war zone. At 12.51pm today, Tuesday 22nd February 2011, it suffered a 6.3 magnitude earthquake centred only 10km southeast of Christchurch at a depth of 5kms. They are saying that this earthquake is an aftershock of the 7.1 magnitude earthquake that hit Christchurch only 5 months ago.

But this time not only are buildings flattened, streets violently ruptured and liquefaction destroying land and streets and seeping inside houses, there are hundreds dead, injured and not yet found. In fact, there are over 100 households that are going to wake up with an empty bed that will never be filled again; there are over 200 people in hospital and 200+ people that are still not accounted for.

Thousands of rescuers and troops have thankfully arrived from the UK and Australia to help New Zealand troops hunt for those missing and for any signs of life amongst the twisted rubble of Christchurch. Media coverage is 24/7 with unedited pictures of rescuers using sledgehammers and chain saws to cut into buildings from above, hacking down roofs and sandwiched floors to find bodies crushed under concrete slabs.

80% of the city has no power and no water; people are homeless, traumatised and lost. It is just horrific ... a day that New Zealanders will never forget. But the big question is where to from here ... the flow-on effect is going to be huge in every possible way, the re-building of this city will take years and, even then, are people going to want to live there?

And yet up here in Wellington, only a 45 minute flight away, we all feel helpless and almost guilty that our lives just seem to carry on. However, we have all been affected by this - New Zealand is a small country and everyone either knows someone or of someone in Christchurch and we are truly a nation in complete grief.