[NHCOLL-L:5280] Fwd: FW: Christchurch earthquake [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

[Jim Croft]

An update on the distressing situation in Christchurch New Zealand, a
biodiversity community perspective from Pat Brownsey.

If you have difficulty in communication with friends and colleagues in
the region, you can appreciate why.

Our thoughts are with them all.

jim


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Pat Brownsey <PatB at tepapa.govt.nz>
Date: Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 12:28 PM
Subject: FW: Christchurch earthquake [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
To: ecameron at aucklandmuseum.com, Gordon Guymer
<gordon.guymer at env.qld.gov.au>, peter.bostock at epa.qld.gov.au, Jim
Croft <jrc at anbg.gov.au>, Darren Crayn <darren.crayn at jcu.edu.au>, Dale
Dixon <dale.dixon at nt.gov.au>, gkantvilas at tmag.tas.gov.au,
Brett.Summerell at rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au

Hi everyone

Not sure how many of you got my first message this morning.  Please
forward it on to others if you think they haven't heard.

I have just spoken to Ilse.  She is at home and Landcare will be
closed for at least the rest of this week.  At the moment there is no
contact with the campus at Lincoln.

When we were talking she said she had just had power restored, and the
land phone lines were working.  However, they have no water or
sewerage system.  And whilst we were talking they had another big
aftershock which I could hear rattling in the background, and which
clearly upset her.  They've had them all through the night, so not
much sleep for anyone, and the possibility of more damage and power
disruption.

Her priority at the moment is to contact all her staff and report back
to Landcare.  With communications difficult in parts of the city,
that's not so easy.  However she thinks all her staff are OK and that
all except David Glenny have accommodation more or less in tact.

She's aware that many people have emailed her, but she's had no
opportunity to respond, and asked me to pass on her thanks, and to let
you know that she won't be at work until at least next week.

I can confirm that there is no damage to the herbarium at Lincoln, and
we have also heard that the entomology collection at Lincoln
University, just up the road, is also safe.  Last time Lincoln
University suffered significant damage, as some of you will have
witnessed.  The Museum, in the CBD, is badly affected with a lot of
internal damage to exhibitions, and the facade of the building now on
the pavement.  Worse was the fact that the sprinklers went off, but
everyone had to get out of the building and they won't be allowed back
any time soon.  There is an obvious danger of the collections going
mouldy in the meantime.

I have spasmodic contact with Ilse, so send me any messages if you
wish.  I think it will be a while before she is able to get to her
email.

Pat
________________________________
From: Pat Brownsey
Sent: Wednesday, 23 February 2011 10:56 a.m.
To: 'chah-l at chah.org.au'
Subject: Christchurch earthquake

Hi everyone

As you will have heard, Christchurch had another major earthquake
yesterday.  Communications are still very difficult, and phone
conversations are being actively discouraged by the authorities so as
not to disrupt emergency services.

We had a brief text from Ilse last night, and I spoke for a short
while with Rainer (her husband) this morning.  All the CHR staff are
safe, but at least one person (David Glenny) has had his flat trashed,
and he was staying with Ilse last night.

I have no information about the state of the herbarium, and cannot
make any contact with Landcare this morning.  However, given that
everyone was at work yesterday when the quake struck, I think we would
have heard if there was serious damage.  The Museum has not fared so
well this time.  It is in the worst affected part of the CBD.  I
understand that staff are safe but that there has been damage.

I will endeavour to answer any questions you may have, or pass on
messages to Ilse, but at this stage further information is hard to
come by.

Pat

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Jim Croft ~ jim.croft at gmail.com ~ +61-2-62509499 ~ http://about.me/jrc
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