Ardern Leads Tributes On New Zealand Quake Anniversary
02/22/21 AT 12:31 AM
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern paid tribute to victims of the Christchurch earthquake Monday as New Zealand paused to mark the 10th anniversary of the disaster that claimed 185 lives.
Thousands gathered at a memorial service in the South Island city and marked a minute s silence at 12:51 pm (2351 Sunday GMT), the precise time the shallow 6.3-magnitude quake hit.
Ardern said it was a moment that changed everything in the city of 400,000. The toll could not have been more significant, and daily reminders made it harder a fractured landscape, aftershocks, struggling friends and neighbours, and children with deep and unseen scars, she said.
The day the earthquake hit: Hamish Clark recalls devastation, 10 years on
21 Feb, 2021 04:00 PM
6 minutes to read
Christ Church Cathedral on the day of the quake. Photo / Hamish Clark
NZ Herald
By: Hamish Clark
NZ Herald s South Island head of news, Hamish Clark, remembers in vivid detail how the 2011 quake devastated Christchurch.
The TV3 newsroom clock stopped at 12.51 pm when the earthquake struck. I dived for cover under my desk. It was the first time I had sought refuge beneath my workstation.
The earth groaned loud and long, the ground accelerated two times the force of gravity as it rocked the centre of Christchurch to its core.
Quake anniversary: Why is Christchurch still broken?
9 minutes to read
Ten years on from the devastating February 22, 2011 earthquake, which claimed 185 lives and caused widespread destruction, how far has the Christchurch rebuild come? Herald senior journalist Kurt Bayer highlights five central city sites that tell a dual tale of progress and a lack of progress.
The experts, as they are wont to do, weighed in quickly. With the aftershocks still rumbling with the relentless monotony of trucks on a motorway, they envisaged Christchurch s rebuild would take 10, maybe 15, or even 20 years, to complete.
And a decade on, as a quick tour of the English-styled Garden City shows, they were probably about right.