Christchurch New Zealand

Mailman List Mirror (Read Only)
1

There has been a bad Earthquake in Christchurch New Zealand with reports of
fatalities.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150099324847752&set=a.125583977751.103665.119452527751&theater

Telecom New Zealand reports "Heavy damage" to their Christchurch building, but no deaths there.

Is there any report of issues with the undersea cables to / from the South Island ?

Regards
Marshall

P.S. On a more personal note,
Google has a people finder up @

http://christchurch-2011.person-finder.appspot.com/

There is a DFAT # - 1300 555 135 - for people outside of NZ to call.

Telecom New Zealand has asked people to stay off of the wireless network except for true emergencies.

2

I'm currently chatting with a close friend via kinect.co.nz. She lives
on the very south tip of the south island. The damage in christchurch
is extensive, and devastating, including damage to hospitals and
emergency response equipment. They're having a really rough day down there.

Andrew

3

There aren't any major international cables to the south island. The big one is the southern Cross cable that lands on either side of Auckland, which is the north of the North Island, which is operating normally.

KAREN (The Kiwi Advanced Research Network) core in the south island is still operating, but most of the member sites in Christchurch are down: http://karen.net.nz/news-earthquake-network-update/

News is reporting deaths now, sadly.

4

Folks on Twitter should search for hashtag #eqnz.

Major news sites in NZ:

www.stuff.co.nz
www.nzherald.co.nz
www.tvnz.co.nz
www.3news.co.nz

Plenty of Vids, Stills and some Streaming available.

Can confirm the reports of multiple casualties. TV News is live broadcasting reports of many folks trapped within buildings, largely because of things like stairwells collapsing, etc. A few buildings have been hit pretty hard, with some notable collapses, damage to vehicles, etc.

The 111 network (911 equiv) is experiencing problems in the South Island, folks are being asked to stay the phones (etc) except for genuine emergencies.

Urban Search and Rescue teams in NZ are based in Christchurch, Palmerston North and Auckland. I gather all three teams are stood-to, and an offer from Australia for additional USAR resource has been accepted. CD Emergency has been declared and the Military are already getting involved.

Christchurch experienced a major quake (magnitude 7.2) in September last year, which received a lot of press as its effects were widespread and severe - but there was little loss of life. This quake, magnitute 6.3, hit much closer to the CBD and during a business day, so the casualty count is much higher. Being a more shallow quake, much closer to town, but also lesser in magnitude, my uneducated view based on media coverage is that the effects are not as widespread, but where they're felt, are very significant.

Mark.
(in Auckland, some 1000 km away...)

5

Folks on Twitter should search for hashtag #eqnz.

Major news sites in NZ:

www.stuff.co.nz
www.nzherald.co.nz
www.tvnz.co.nz
www.3news.co.nz

Plenty of Vids, Stills and some Streaming available.

Can confirm the reports of multiple casualties. TV News is live broadcasting reports of many folks trapped within buildings, largely because of things like stairwells collapsing, etc. A few buildings have been hit pretty hard, with some notable collapses, damage to vehicles, etc.

The 111 network (911 equiv) is experiencing problems in the South Island, folks are being asked to stay the phones (etc) except for genuine emergencies.

Urban Search and Rescue teams in NZ are based in Christchurch, Palmerston North and Auckland. I gather all three teams are stood-to, and an offer from Australia for additional USAR resource has been accepted. CD Emergency has been declared and the Military are already getting involved.

Christchurch experienced a major quake (magnitude 7.2) in September last year, which received a lot of press as its effects were widespread and severe - but there was little loss of life. This quake, magnitute 6.3, hit much closer to the CBD and during a business day, so the casualty count is much higher. Being a more shallow quake, much closer to town, but also lesser in magnitude, my uneducated view based on media coverage is that the effects are not as widespread, but where they're felt, are very significant.

The 2010 quake was 10 km deep, which is not that deep. It was 40 km away from Christchurch, however. This quake's epicenter is at Lyttelton, which is apparently only 12 km away, and so it isn't too surprising the damage is heaver. (That depends a lot on the property of the bedrock and sediments, and whether there is any seismic wave reflection and focusing going on.)

Regards
Marshall

6

Here is an animated seismic map

http://www.christchurchquakemap.co.nz/today

Marshall

7

prayers.............hopes......... anything i can do I will

8

From: Marshall Eubanks
Sent: Monday, February 21, 2011 9:29 PM
To: Mark Foster
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Subject: Re: Christchurch New Zealand

Here is an animated seismic map

Christchurch Quake Map - Today's earthquakes

Marshall

According to one article I read this evening, liquefaction was a more
significant factor in this quake than in the last one.

9

The other CERT: Community Emergency Response Team. Kind of off-topic
for NANOG but I know that most of us are concerned with disaster
recovery. This is the first local line. For US folks, there should
be a CERT for you city or county, if not ask why. For Canadians,
check with PEP. The CERT program trains you what to do when the offal
hits the fan and the first responders are overloaded.

https://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/about.shtm

"The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program educates people
about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and
trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety,
light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical
operations. Using the training learned in the classroom and during
exercises, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or
workplace following an event when professional responders are not
immediately available to help."

10

+1 for CERT. I also think that taking a CERT class is a great way to re-evaluate your own network emergency procedures. You may find new ways to prepare for network disasters, and to triage damage when a network disaster occurs.

jc

11

Agreed on CERT.

I diffidently suggest that amateur radio licensing, together with some
battery-operated gear (think 2-meter or 70-cm handy-talkies at a minimum
for short-haul comms, HF gear for longer-haul) may be Very Good Indeed
in a disaster that takes down POTS service or government emergency
communications. Folks interested in this might want to investigate ARES
and/or RACES in the US, or similar activities in other countries.

Examples:
New Orleans: hams did EMCOMM for police, fire, and other services after
grid power failed, until FEMA was able to move generators and other
hardware in.

NYC, 9/11/2001: EMCOMM repeaters were on one of the WTC buildings. When
that collapsed, hams did EMCOMM for police, fire, and other services until
FEMA and NY State got EMCOMM repeater hardware moved in.

Hurricane Ike, Galveston TX and surrounding area: Grid power failed and
many areas flooded, taking out government EMCOMM. Hams provided EMCOMM. I
helped work this one, and *KNOW* there were lives saved by hams poviding
EMCOMM services for government.

Oklahoma City, after the Murrah Building bombing: wired POTS overloaded,
cell services were restricted. Hams provided EMCOMM.

This won't help you get your networks back in service, except indirectly,
but you certainly can help others while you're waiting for things to
improve.

12

You have products like a cell on wheels. A container containing a phone switch and a mobile cell, easily installable. You place it at the center of the disaster zone and all mobile phones start to work...

if you are worried about congestion, then only the "right" sims are registered/enabled.

13

Diffident, hell. When did we get diffident? :slight_smile:

We use "When All Else Fails" as a slogan for Amateur Radio Emergency
Communications for a reason...

The *real* problem is getting petty politics out of local ARES/RACES orgs.

Cheers,
-- jra

14

The problem with this is that both ARES and RACES hams have gotten there
first (orange lights and strobes flashing) and are now engaged in
small-arms fire over who gets to set their repeater up. You're now
hiding under your vehicle. What is your next move?

Andrew

15

The problem with this is that both ARES and RACES hams have gotten there
first (orange lights and strobes flashing) and are now engaged in small-arms
fire over who gets to set their repeater up. You're now hiding under your
vehicle. What is your next move?

Larger-arms fire?

16

Wait for a winner to prevail. Whoever comes out on top is clearly more
prepared to deal with emergencies.

     Jima

17

http://www.hamsexy.com

18

The old pin--through-the-center-of-the coax trick while you go on setting up
your repeater? :slight_smile:

73's,
Mike
KE6MRE

19

FWIW, in my experience, when ARES and RACES both arrive on a scene
together, they rarely get into small arms fire over any thing, rather, preferring
to work together to help each other set up both repeaters and to coordinate
which parts of the workload will be handled by which operation in order to
maximize the efficiency with which the job gets done.

Perhaps this is unique to California (yeah, I know we're known as the
land of Granola out there), or, perhaps as I perceive, hams world wide
tend to be community-minded decent folks trying to help.

Owen
KB6MER

20

I'm glad someone said something nice about Radio Hams on this thread (which started as being about Christchurch!) or i'd have risked polluting Christchurch's good rep with all this noise about whackers!

FWIW AREC (NZ's ARES equivalent) are active in Christchurch, mainly on VHF, though there's been a little activity on HF as well as I gather. I'm too far away (or too poorly equipped) to verify those reports.

For the most part though the major Telcos are succeeding on providing sufficient resources to limp things along. Hundreds of Generators are operating to provide cover for critical comms infrastructure (when not being stolen!).

Back in September I blogged about the NZ Fire Service's new HAZMAT-Command vehicles and how they had proven their worth. During that quake they had ~1-2 operational.

http://www.blakjak.net/node/1380
(photos etc)

This is outside the main Christchurch Fire Station where one is currently operating as Command Unit, taken Yesterday:

http://www.aucklandfirepolice.org.nz/images/christchurch/5.jpg

NZ recently fielded 17 of those trucks, I gather there's ~5 of them deployed in Christchurch now, plus at least a couple of the previous-generation command units they replaced. They're equipped with Cellular, Satcom and Radio.

From what i've seen connectivity is still available for the majority of

Christchurch based ISP's and major networks - assuming their building's are still servicable. NZNOG is currently collating offers of assistance from the local NOG community, and there's some wider stuff going on:

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/freitasm/7561

http://business.eq.org.nz/

As usual, if you filter through the crims, scammers and others who would take advantage of such a situation, there's plenty of good people doing their bit to assist.

I for one was very grateful to see so much international assistance popping up promptly too.

Mark
ZL1VMF
Auckland, NZ