Christchurch Earthquake 2011

This is very, very sad, but we know in the last days that such catastrophic conditions will ocurr before our Saviour comes. My heart and prayers go out to parents, siblings, friends, husbands, wives, whose loved ones died in the disaster. A Phillipino lass text her mother from where she was trapped beneath a crumpled building. She told of the pain she felt, how dark it was. They could not get her out and she died, along with dozens of others.
NZ quake death toll rises to 159
2nd March 2011

The death toll from Christchurch's earthquake has risen to 159 after more bodies were recovered.
Photos
Christchurch earthquake in pictures

Tod_Johnston RT @nzherald: Demand for port-a-loos is so high they're being imported from Australia - but private households can't... http://t.co/DMM3EsQ 9 minutes ago · reply
kiwinerd RT @nzherald: Demand for port-a-loos is so high they're being imported from Australia - but private households can't hire them: http://t.co/DMM3EsQ #eqnz 9 minutes ago · reply
nzherald Demand for port-a-loos is so high they're being imported from Australia - but private households can't hire them: http://t.co/DMM3EsQ #eqnz 9 minutes ago · reply
Police released the names of three more victims, eight days after the deadly 6.3-magnitude quake struck the city and wreaked widespread damage through the CBD and eastern suburbs.
Those named on Wednesday were Jayden Andrews-Howland, 15, from Aranui, Paul Clarence Dunlop, 67, from Rolleston, and Andrew Stephen Cochrane, 43, of Bromley.
Eleven people have now been officially named.
Police expect the death toll to reach about 240 once all the bodies have been recovered from collapsed buildings and identified.
Superintendent Dave Cliff told media on Wednesday police expected to name more people in the near future as the identification process was gaining momentum.
Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) head Russell Wood said teams had now managed to get to the 10th floor of the 26-storey Hotel Grand Chancellor and had found no one.
The hotel is threatening to topple over and was reinforced with concrete so USAR teams could get in.
He said teams had also done a second sweep of the red carded buildings but found no bodies.
The teams would also try to get into the rubble of the spire of ChristChurch Cathedral to search for bodies, he said.
Meanwhile, Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said about 60 homes in Sumner, near the RSA, were evacuated overnight after fears an unstable cliff would come down on them.
Other houses in other suburbs were also evacuated because large boulders above were threatening to fall on them.
Civil Defence said they were looking at ways to allow people into the CBD cordon to retrieve their cars and get to their businesses to retrieve essential items.
Meanwhile, NZ television personality Jason Gunn says his phone has been running hot and a website inundated with offers to adopt Christchurch families badly affected by last week's devastating earthquake.
Gunn and his wife Janine Morrell-Gunn launched the adoptachristchurchfamily.com website after helping out two families badly hit by last September's magnitude 7.1 earthquake.
"From America, from Europe, it (the response) has been incredible, heartwarming, it's really heartwarming," Gunn told NewstalkZB on Wednesday.
On his website Gunn said after September's quake he and his wife financially supported two families from the hard-hit suburb of Bexley.
"We wanted to give targeted practical assistance."