how are things down-under?

[PeterW]

I keep hearing on the news about natural disasters affecting New Zealand but we don't seem to get a lot of detail.

For example, the cloud of volcanic ash from Chile: we hear that some airlines have cancelled flights and some haven't; some reports say the cloud will stay above 20,000 feet, others speculate that there could be some fall out that might affect people with asthma and similar complaints.

The latest is that Christchurch is having more earthquake tremors but commentators can't seem to make up their minds whether these are aftershocks or new tremors.

I hope our members in New Zealand are OK. Can one of them let us know how things are, please?

PeterW

[John Farrell]

Peter.....some airlines have cancelled flights, but Air New Zealand is still flying.
Christchurch was hit by aftershocks yesterday, the largest a 6. This has brought down damaged buildings, caused more liquifaction in the eastern suburbs, and cut power to a lot of the city. There were no fatalities.

[julio1fer]

In Montevideo (about 1000 mi. northeast of the Puyehue volcano) we had two days of volcano ash last week. Just a very thin layer of gray dust. Today, ash again, barely perceptible. It depends on the winds; the eruption is still going on. The situation is much worse in southern Argentina, in the area close to the volcano and under the wind paths, for instance in the Bariloche winter resort.

I do not know anybody affected by the ash in Montevideo, although some people working outside all day seem to have had respiratory problems last week. Definitely, nothing even close to a general problem.

The airlines did not operate for several days last week, then they worked for a few days, and today the airport is closed again. Tomorrow morning they are supposed to start operations again. Lots of people left down everywhere in the region - big chaos in the airports.

I was in the U.S. (Boston) in 1980, when St Helens blew up. I saw then a lot more ash, red skies in the sunset, etc. So far, here it has just been a nuisance - except if you have to fly.

[daveh]

It was on the news at lunch time. One place in Chile looked as though it had been snowing as everywhere was covered in white.