Saturday 4 September 2010

Quake!

7.4 magnitude, 30 km west of Christchurch. All are well.

Ira reports he doesn't like the big rumbles, he likes the little rumbles best.

Minor damage only at our place. Power's on here, internet was down for a while. Paul Walker (Antidismal) reports power out at his place.

No tsunami warnings.

Good morning!


New Zealand Earthquake Report - Sep 4 2010 at 4:35 am (NZST)
Magnitude 7.4, Saturday, September 4 2010 at 4:35 am (NZST), 30 km west of Christchurch.
Quake Details
Information about this earthquake:
Reference Number3366146/G
Universal TimeSeptember 3 2010 at 16:35
NZ Standard TimeSaturday, September 4 2010 at 4:35 am
Latitude, Longitude43.54°S, 172.23°E
Focal Depth33 km
Richter magnitude7.4
RegionCanterbury
Location
  • 10 km south-east of Darfield
  • 20 km east of Coalgate
  • 30 km west of Christchurch
Widely felt throughout New Zealand.

13 comments:

  1. Internet up and down, some sites not coming up.

    RadioNZ reports power out in most of town, water out, fair bit of damage - some roads, maybe the bridge to Brighton.

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  2. Luckily, the nocturnal among us don't get the annoyance of being woken up.

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  3. Internet dodgy.

    Pool down 8 inches, presumably from water having splashed out.

    Stones from garden path strewn all over the place.

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  4. Blogger is up; U Canterbury email is down.

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  5. Eleanor has slept through everything.

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  6. Glad to see you and your family are well! It's good to see you blogging so soon after the quake!

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  7. I see Treasury back-of-the-enveloped $2 bill total cost of the quakes. Renew some of the buildings in the city will be a good thing for the city and a welcome fiscal boast for the local economy (assuming cost translates back into investment). Heady stuff though. We've got a shop on Colombo St and we're sending my partner down to check it out. Both shops on either side had their walls crumble and are structurally unsound, so odds are ours are too.

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  8. Broken window fallacy though, James, right?

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  9. That one sent me off to Wikipedia :D
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window

    Yeah, I read it, but I don't believe it. I'm a Keynesian at heart :D

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underconsumption

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  10. It depends on what your argument is. It's one thing to say "there will be some positive consequences, although they are outweighed by the negatives." It's another to say "the earthquake was a net benefit."

    Old buildings do impose some negative externalities upon me. I've never liked how they look when travelling through the city. Still, this is a relatively small effect.

    On another note, Bob Parker is up to 37% re-elect on iPredict. Handling a disaster well didn't do much good for Ernie Eves, though.

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  11. @James: To the extent that we get free money from central government that's worth more than the damage, then we could be better off. But that's a lot different from a national welfare calculation.

    @Henry: I get internet in 3 second bursts as my modem goes "Connecting ... negotiating ... Connected! ... Connecting ... negotiating ..." on 30 second intervals. Makes trading impossible. Very very frustrating.

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