Geo436.com blog: Emergency declared as 7.1 quake hits New Zealand

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Geo436 WELLINGTON: Authorities declared a state of emergency after a major earthquake hit New Zealand’s second biggest city early on Saturday, bringing down power lines, ripping up roads and wrecking building facades, but authorities reported no deaths. A formal civil defense state of emergency was imposed in Christchurch to coordinate recovery operations in the city of around 350,000 after facades collapsed into streets, crushing cars and blocking roads. The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.1 and a depth of 10 kms (6 miles), hitting the South Island city and a large surrounding area of farms at around 4.35 a.m