Second quake strikes Christchurch, New Zealand - February 22, 2011

A second earthquake in 5 months has struck New Zealand's second largest city (population 348,000.)  The 6.3 magnitude quake struck in the middle of the work day at !2:51pm local time on February 22, 2011. (New Zealand is 20 hours ahead of Colorado)  This quake has done considerably more damage and 65 people are confirmed dead by Prime Minster John Key. The first published reports were at 12.58pm on TVNZ website via Twitter "Tweeters describe the quake as "huge" and say there is damage."  New Zealand is an island nation of 4.3 million in the South Pacific ocean.

Last September I reported on the first quake that struck Christchurch and the experiences of fellow travel writer Heather Hapeta.  Heather has since moved from Christchurch but did make a post on her home page.  

Jerome Shaw is a travel writer based in Colorado.  He has lived and worked in New Zealand.

TVNZ TImeline of the earthquake as it happened  

Previous NZQuake story on Examiner    

Heather's home page 

Heather's Photos from September 2010 quake  1st post   2nd post

All text copyright Jerome Shaw 2011 / www,jeromeshaw.com 

Video provided by  www.wwreporters.com