You've probably heard on the news that Christchurch (my hometown) was hit by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake. The magnitude was less than the 7.1 quake during September, but the epicentre was shallower and much closer to the city center than last time.

The damage is far greater that the last quake, and there are 65 reported deaths, with many more likely. I've been keeping an eye on facebook for posts from friends and family, and many have checked in. Since net and phone lines are down in a lot of places, I won't get too worried about silence from the rest of them for a few days.

It's crazy to think that I was there only a few weeks ago, and aside from the numerous demolition sites, everything looked quite normal. I even felt a 5.1 quake when I was there, which was slightly surreal when the bed shook me awake, but there was pretty much no damage from that.

And you're probably noticed in my gallery, I took a photo of a bridge that was damaged by the September quake. - [link]

I guess now I'll go back to monitoring the various channels to find out how everyone is holding up.