2709 Salesian students 'all shook up' on NZ outdoor excursion
austraLasia #2709 Salesian students 'all shook up' on NZ outdoor excursion
CHRISTCHURCH: 7 September 2010 -- The Salesian community in New
Zealand (opened earlier this year) is in Auckland, on the North Island,
but as it happens, 9 students from Salesian administered Dominic
College in Hobart, Tasmania, NZ's island 'neighbour', had arrived in
Christchurch at precisely the wrong time! At 4.30 am on the
morning of 5 September, the city was struck by a 7.1 earthquake, one of
the largest to his the country in the last 80 years. The earthquake
caused substantial damage to the city, some injuries but no loss of
life.
The nine students, along with six from another
Hobart Catholic school, were in the care of the outdoors education
teacher from Dominic College, who acted quickly to gather the students
according to standard earthquake drill - in a safe room, under tables
and in doorways. Nobody was injured, and once city authoroties
allowed freedom of movement, the students and staff were able to
continue their journey which takes them across to Greymouth on the
western side of the South Island, opposite Christchurch. Of
course, that direction would not necessarily ensure no more potential
earthquakes, as the fault line that runs through the country traverses
much of the South Island and a good part of the North. That's New
Zealand's lot.
New Zealand experiences some 14,000 earthquakes
annually, only 800 or so of which can normally be felt. The most
devastating earthquake in terms of human loss occurred in 1931 in
Hawke's Bay (North Island) when 256 people died. Because of the
frequency of tremors and the ever-likely possibility of a major one,
New Zealand building regulations are amongst the strictest int he
world, and the people have a 'culture' of earthquake readiness, all of
which no doubt contributed to the fact that the most recent, while
destroying many buildings in the city, did not inflict death.
The NZ earthquake is a reminder, nevertheless, that
a large area of Salesian activity in the Pacific zone, Fiji, Samoa,
Tonga (which has no Salesian community but has contributed good, solid
Salesian vocations) and of course NZ itself, has this factor to contend
with. The Pacific Tsunami which struck just a year ago in the region
(29 September, 8.3 strength), killing more than a hundred people,
resulted in the tragic loss of one young Salesian's mother and several
other members of his family, in Tonga's northern islands. _________________ AustraLasia is an
email
service
for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions
as an
agency for ANS based in
Rome.
For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com
.
Use Bosconet-wiki
to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on
austraLasia
2009 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser
address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail
yourself of the Salesian
Digital
Library
at http://sdl.sdb.org
