6.3 Earthquake Strikes New Zealand
New Zealand has been rocked by a ‘massive’ 6.3 magnitude earthquake that was felt by 70,000 Kiwis across both north and south islands.
The ‘scary’ tremor was centred around its capital Wellington on the north island on Wednesday at 7.38pm NZDT (local time 5:38 AEDT) around 50km northwest of Paraparaumu at a depth of 48km. GeoNet classed the quake as strong after it struck with a jolt and was followed by 30 seconds of moderate shaking.
A Christchurch resident told the New Zealand Herald the quake had a rolling sensation. Chief political reporter Aaron Dahmen from Newstalk ZB was caught up in the chaos and said his whole house in Wellington shook aggressively after he felt a ‘big bump’.
‘A steady rumble followed for some time,’ he said. ‘It was like a freight train hurtling past our house,’ David Haxton from Raumati Beach north of Wellington said, while other Kiwis described it as ‘massive’ and ‘scary’.
National Party deputy leader Nicola Willis told stuff.co.nz she saw people duck for cover under tables when the tremor struck while she was at a function in Wellington. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said his words over the earthquake amid the flood plagued nation were ‘unprintable’.
‘I was looking out the window for a plague of locusts,’ Mr Hipkins said. A supermarket worker from New World Metro in the capital’s CBD said no items in the store had fallen off shelves.
‘I thought it was the wind to begin with,’ the employee said. New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency said there is no tsunami threat and no significant damage reported.
A spokesperson from Fire and Emergency New Zealand reported no incidents related to the quake. But Wellington commuters should expect severe delays after the Metlink train services were forced to run at 25km/h until further notice.
Another earthquake with a magnitude of 4.0 also hit the country 20 minutes after the 6.3 tremor. It struck 45km southwest of Taumarunui in the central north island and was at a depth of 78km.
It comes a day after the country declared a national state of emergency due to widespread flooding and damage from Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle.
Thousands of Kiwis on the North Island woke up to no power, flooded homes, road closures and phone outages on Tuesday after the massive storm caused major chaos and cut off communities, leaving an enormous trail of destruction in its wake.
Tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, were without power due to destructive winds from the storm, including the entire city of Napier.
