A series of powerful earthquakes jolted New Zealand's South Island Monday, triggering a tsunami and sending aftershocks across the country that left at least two dead, officials said.
The first event, a 7.8-magnitude quake, struck just after midnight Monday near the coastal community of Kaikoura, some 93 kilometers (55 miles) northeast of the city of Christchurch, the US Geological Survey reported.
It triggered waves of 2.49 meters (8 feet) above usual tide levels, the highest he has seen in his 38 years in New Zealand, Philip Duncan of Weather Watch New Zealand said.
An initial tsunami warning was lifted but temblors continued Monday afternoon. A 6.2-magnitude quake struck around 1:30 p.m. 39 kilometers west-southwest of Kaikoura, further north of Christchurch.
Prime Minister John Key posted a short video to YouTube after surveying the damage.
"It's hard to see how those roads, neither north nor south, will be opened very easily," he said.
"In the short term what we're trying to do is make sure that the people of Kaikoura and the likes have food, water, help and backup.
"I'd say it's billions of dollars worth of money that we have to spend here but we're focused on what we're doing and we'll keep up the good work."
Fissures run along a road by the Centre Port in Wellington, Monday, November 14 after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck New Zealand's south Island early in the morning.
Mark A'Court, owner of the Fresh Choice in Nelson City, posted security video footage on Facebook showing wine bottles falling from shelves at his store.
A photo of a road with a deep, wide crack down its middle served as sobering evidence of the temblor's force.
New Zealand is regularly hit by earthquakes, because it sits in a "collision zone" between the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates. It is part of the Pacific's "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-shaped belt around the ocean's edges where many earthquakes and volcano eruptions occur.
Source:CNN
The first event, a 7.8-magnitude quake, struck just after midnight Monday near the coastal community of Kaikoura, some 93 kilometers (55 miles) northeast of the city of Christchurch, the US Geological Survey reported.
It triggered waves of 2.49 meters (8 feet) above usual tide levels, the highest he has seen in his 38 years in New Zealand, Philip Duncan of Weather Watch New Zealand said.
An initial tsunami warning was lifted but temblors continued Monday afternoon. A 6.2-magnitude quake struck around 1:30 p.m. 39 kilometers west-southwest of Kaikoura, further north of Christchurch.
"It's hard to see how those roads, neither north nor south, will be opened very easily," he said.
"In the short term what we're trying to do is make sure that the people of Kaikoura and the likes have food, water, help and backup.
"I'd say it's billions of dollars worth of money that we have to spend here but we're focused on what we're doing and we'll keep up the good work."
New Zealand is regularly hit by earthquakes, because it sits in a "collision zone" between the Indo-Australian and Pacific tectonic plates. It is part of the Pacific's "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-shaped belt around the ocean's edges where many earthquakes and volcano eruptions occur.
Source:CNN
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