On February 22, [2011], 13 [bus passengers] were crushed by an unreinforced brick building at 603-13 Colombo St. I broke half a dozen bones or so, severed a tendon, spent two months in hospital and six months off work. And I was lucky. Twelve people died. I did not know them, but they forever travel with me.

Just after midday, North Carolina native and political scientist Ann Brower boarded the no. 3 bus to Canterbury University. Shortly afterwards, falling masonry from the 2011 Christchurch earthquake trapped her and the other passengers in the bus. She was the sole survivor. Now, nearly a year later, she describes her rescue and her recovery. [more inside]
posted by Sonny Jim on Feb 12, 2012 - 7 comments

Ross Becker's photographs of Christchurch. The central business district reopens this weekend for the first time since the earthquake (Previously: 1, 2, 3) on February 22, 2011. [more inside]
posted by doublehappy on Oct 26, 2011 - 3 comments

The Honeymoon From Hell. Stefan and Erika Svanstrom had planned a long trip that would start in Singapore in early December and end in China four months later. But things didn't go exactly as planned. They encountered floods, fires, tsunamis and earthquakes along the way.
posted by mannequito on May 6, 2011 - 14 comments

Eerily calm - Civil Defence New Zealand has released footage of post-earthquake Christchurch.
posted by Catch on Mar 23, 2011 - 12 comments

A massive quake ripped through the Canterbury area of the south island of New Zealand this morning.
posted by ironbob on Feb 21, 2011 - 229 comments

At 4:35 am local time, a 7.2 earthquake hit just outside of Christchurch New Zealand. Reports are just coming in of power outages, damage, etc. 7.2 is considered a major earthquake.
posted by agatha_magatha on Sep 3, 2010 - 74 comments

Did the earth move for you as well? The biggest earthquake to hit the "Shaky Isles" since 1968 rocked the southern South Island of New Zealand earlier today, with the tremor being felt as far away as Sydney. Did you realise that recorded earthquakes are an almost daily occurrence around the world? In fact, earthquakes with a magnitude of 1 or over happen at an alarming rate. While California is often thought of as earthquake central and New Zealand carries the "Shaky Isles" crown with justification (and not a little pride), Australia is not generally considered to be a country prone to earthquakes. Surprisingly, there have been 15 earthquakes in Australia in the past month alone, ranging from 2 to 6 in intensity.
posted by dg on Aug 22, 2003 - 5 comments