Great Earthquakes In Diverse Places
Earthquake Aftershocks continue to rock Christchurch in New Zealand
* By staff writers
* From: AAP
* September 10, 2010 12:31PM
NEW Zealand authorities delayed plans to lift no-go zones in quake-hit
Christchurch Friday after major aftershocks again rattled the country's
second largest city.
Christchurch mayor Bob Parker had hoped to open the city centre for the
first time since last weekend's 7.0-magnitude earthquake but said fresh
tremors early Friday measuring up to magnitude 4.5 temporarily
scuppered the plan.
"We're erring on the side of caution," Parker told Radio New Zealand.
"We've lost nobody in this event and the controllers and everybody else
working here want it to stay that way."
Parker said the cordons, which are being enforced by police and the
military, would be scaled back over the next few days, aftershocks
permitting.
"We've got to send a message that the majority of the city is open for
business and people are in some ways getting back to their lives," he
said.
The city of 340,000 will remain under a state of emergency until
Wednesday following the main tremor on Saturday, which caused damage
estimated at four billion dollars (2.7 billion US).
Civil defence director John Hamilton said 300 people made homeless by
the tremor remained in welfare centres and the recovery would be a
long, complex process.
"Authorities are focusing on restoring loss of sewerage services,
addressing housing needs, provision of psychological services, ensuring
negative business impacts are (minimised) and setting up recovery
structures."