Summary
6 September 2010
New Zealand has declared an official state of emergency following a massive earthquake that caused extensive damage to the country's second largest city, Christchurch.
Reporter:
Shirley Gordon
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Report
The working week has begun in Christchurch but people in many parts of the city speak of an eerie quiet, with the streets still strewn with rubble and shattered glass.
No buses are running and thousands of people are off work because the central business district remains cordoned off; some 90 buildings in this area have yet to be declared safe and police say there's a risk from falling masonry and glass.
Some residents are still without anywhere to stay; around 150 people had to spend another night in welfare centres. Schools are closed and sewage is leaking from broken pipes, threatening water supplies. Officials from the Ministry of Civil Defence say aftershocks have continued since Saturday, and the threat of more – up to a magnitude of six – will remain for the next week. Predicted gale-force winds never made it to Christchurch on Sunday, but there's been heavy rain, doing nothing to help the clean up efforts.
Shirley Gordon, ´óÏó´«Ã½ News, London
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Vocabulary
- eerie
strange and frightening
- strewn
covered untidily
- rubble
piles of broken stones and bricks
- shattered
broken into tiny pieces
- cordoned off
placed behind a rope barrier to prevent people from entering
- masonry
bricks and stones used to make buildings
- welfare centres
buildings to provide shelter for vulnerable people, particularly homeless people
- sewage
human waste
- aftershocks
smaller earthquakes that happen after the main earthquake
- gale-force winds
very strong movements of air
