Recovery continues in New Zealand

David Crampton writes for the Religion News Service that work has moved from rescue to recovery in Christchurch, New Zealand and the surrounding communities after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit the region on February 22nd.

He writes:

Churches shattered by a 6.3-magnitude earthquake were yielding up their dead on Friday (Feb. 25) as clergy and parishioners grieved and searched for places to worship on Sunday.

The overall death toll from the Feb. 22 quake reached 113, with more than 200 people missing and hundreds injured.

Rescue workers began the grim task of removing bodies from the Anglican Cathedral in Christchurch as hopes of finding survivors faded, according to Anglican Taonga, a local church publication. Search and rescue experts lowered a camera into the damaged nave but found no signs of life. The cathedral's spire crumbled in the quake, collapsing into a stone tower.

As many as 22 people are believed to have been buried in the rubble of the cathedral after the spire collapsed. Cathedral staff were safe, but the church and spire are a major tourist attraction.

Mayor Bob Parker said that the Anglican cathedral would be rebuilt. "There is some discussion that that is a building we could rebuild brick by brick, stone by stone. We need to find some symbols like that," he said, according to Anglican Taonga.

Members of at least 10 damaged Catholic parishes will be celebrating Mass at schools and other Catholic and Anglican parishes. The Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, the city's biggest Catholic church, was damaged beyond repair.

"The bishop has said that no Mass can be conducted in a parish without an inspection, even if there is no damage," said Mike Stopforth, spokesman for Catholic Bishop Barry Jones of Christchurch.

Meanwhile, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco has set up a way to donate assistance on-line here.

Posted by Andrew Gerns on February 26, 2011 9:00 PM | |
Comments (2)

Cartoonist and writer Sarah E. Laing has posted a diary-style comic you can access here about the situation facing many people in the earthquake-affected city and the frustration of those who want to do something, anything to help.

Posted by Murdoch Matthew [TypeKey Profile Page] | February 27, 2011 6:07 PM


TVNZ has a story about hotel guests rescued from upper stories after the fire stairs collapsed:

Hotel 'angels' led guests to safety

A young couple, and others, managed to make a dramatic escape from one of Christchurch's tallest buildings thanks to the ingenuity of hotel staff.

The 25th floor of The Grand Chancellor is sitting perilously at the top of the warped hotel which is in danger of collapse.

The floor was where Amber Cleverley and her husband were caught on Tuesday at 12:51pm, the time the 6.3 earthquake struck.

The hotel plunged into darkness and the interior soon became clogged with dust.

"I knew my eyes were open but I can't really remember what I saw and he (Amber's husband) just said to me 'get your shoes on, get out,'" Cleverley told ONE News.

"And then when we turned the corner on the 22nd, the next set of fire stairs were just gone. It was just a concrete cliff. We were just standing on the edge of this cliff."

Retreating, the couple found a group huddled together and they waited together for more than two hours.

"Everyone was just holding each other. We were all just kind of bracing for the building to collapse at any moment," Cleverley said.

"One of the maintenance guys threw a chair through a window because when we were in there it was so dusty we couldn't breathe."

The couple prepared for the end as aftershocks continued.

"There was a big shake and he (Amber's husband) said baby 'I love you so much' and I was kind of like - I didn't want to hear him say that 'cause he never talks like that.

"He said to me 'put your wallet away, take your cards out, put them in your pocket so your hands are free', and I thought that's a great idea, so I did that. But he told me yesterday that the only reason he did that was so that my body would be identified," she said.

However, trapped hotel maintenance staff pulled through for everyone.

They used their tools to jack open the fire exit and file the group one-by-one down the broken stairwell, and eventually exit in a crane.

"They really did risk their lives to get us out of there," said Cleverley.

Grand Chancellor maintenance manager Steve Phillips was one of the men engineering the rescue.

Cleverley said Philips was "an angel."

"I can't even put into words how grateful and how thankful I am," she said. "Every one of those guys were just amazing - heroes, angels."

Video here and here.

Posted by Murdoch Matthew [TypeKey Profile Page] | February 27, 2011 6:40 PM

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