New Zealand has had amazing support and help from throughout the world with teams of Search and Rescue personnel, police and service people arriving over the past 3 days.
We live on the other Island from Christchurch and although it was felt up here, I wasn't one of them who did! We are not diectly involved, however my daughter is on standby to go and help with Victim identification as she is a dentist with interest in Forensics. She spent 2 weeks in Melbourne doing that same task after the horrendous bush fires in Victoria.
113 bodies recovered so far and over 200 missing. The central Christchurch city is like a war zone check out photos on these sites.
http://www.3news.co.nz/National/Christc ... fault.aspx
and
http://news.msn.co.nz/slideshowajax/149 ... .slideshow
There is a National State of Emergency in force, our census which was due on March 8th is cancelled and many people are without power, water and sewerage and maybe for some time. Many old buildings, some of which are over 100 years old will be demolished-even some of the reasonably new buildings have completely collapsed crushing many of the occupants.
What strikes us is how quickly rescue teams from all over the world have arrived, complete with tonnes of gear. The first Australian teams were here within a few hours and just as our guys rushed over to help with the recent floods and bushfires in Australia-it is comforting to know that even though we are 1,000 kms from our nearest neighbours Australia, we can help each other out quite quickly.
One of the fortunate coincedences was there was a large military excercise due to take place and there were 1000 of our own military and navy, plus forces from Singapore already quite close. I think there was also a medical conference going on and 250 extra Doctors and nurses in Christchurch.
Thankyou for your thoughts and wishes.
