Reply to post: Re: At least most of the country moved away from Australia

Re: At least most of the country moved away from Australia

So the low casualties, while gratifying, aren't that surprising. And calling the country "comprehensively fucked" would be like calling the UK "comprehensively fucked" if Brighton Pier collapsed. (I mean, it is fairly fucked, but the earthquake is a relatively small part of that.)

Mongo said it well. Wellington (our capital) has several buildings in it and the outlying suburbs being demolished, or quite badly damaged. Some are only a few years old, supposedly built to very high (on an international scale) earthquake standards. "Several" is in the hundreds, with I think thousands currently out of work and out of homes. Not all businesses can pay for the wages for their staff while they can't get into their buildings, and the government isn't able to afford to compensate/help out all firms (while simultaneously refusing aid from overseas! (last I heard) ).

While helping with out high unemployment, the costs of these quakes (both the last couple of weeks and the Christchurch ones) will be felt by us for a long time to come. And if the Kaikoura quakes follow the pattern from Christchurch and/or, as Mongo mentions, they hit Wellington which is kinda next on the list (we had a lot around Seddon/in the Cook Straight a year or two back), then we will see another massive lot of damage with subsequent loss of life, homes and businesses. If any generate a significant tsunami...

So yes, we are rather close to the region of "fucked".