posted on Feb, 21 2011 @ 10:06 PM
The images and audio coming out of Christchurch are just shocking. It is a city spread out rather than up, and yes it has a lot of brick and stone
buildings, and yet some recently built buildings have completely collapsed. This is in a country where earthquake proof building is the standard for
modern construction. This was a violent quake.
The fact it happened at 1pm when many were inside buildings, and generally in the city centre eating their lunch just adds to horror. It is a real
shocker. Stand strong Kiwis.
In a rather odd coincidence as it happens the fourth NZ partnership forum of the NZUS council was taking place in Christchurch at this very time.
Present are the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Cambell, and the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Mariko
Silver together with eight serving Congressmen and representatives of significant US corporations Boeing, Time Warner, and Kraft Foods.
The woman in charge of US security, US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Nepolitano was also scheduled to attend, but luckily for her she chose to
pull out of her scheduled visit just days ago.
The topics for discussion at the meeting were counter-terrorism, border security, and amongst other matters, disaster relief!