Any Word From Wingman on the Earthquke in NZ?

I was wondering the same thing.

In 1999, we had the Landers quake out in the desert; a 7.3. It was just before sunrise and I was driving home through the neighborhood when I noticed lightning…in June? There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and I couldn’t feel the quake as I was driving. That was strange :confusedn: When I got home seconds later my neighbors were standing outside in their underwear; that was strange also. That’s when I learned that there had been a quake 150 miles away. It was the power lines slapping each other and shorting out the transformers that produced what I thought was lightning. That made more sense.

R, Steve

Yes it was a big one..

Not the violent shake most see in movies but rolling waves that went on for nearly 3 minutes. It actually felt like being on a boat in rough seas with waves rolling underneath in a very direct west to east motion.
I know it sounds strange but you could tell from which direction it came from like a train approaching and ripping by at high speed.

It woke me at midnight and the rolling quake waves had the house creaking and doors swinging in their frames. I woke my wife (who was over tired from a long day at work and would probably have slept through it) in preparation to get out of the house if it got any bigger.. she quickly went back to sleep once it was over but I lay awake all night messaging friends through out the country.. I live in an area not as prone to Quakes and thought to myself I we felt it this bad then somewhere just got hit real bad!
Messages came in from friends 4 to 6 hours drive south from me who felt it even stronger so my first thought was the alpine fault.. a quick google search and Geonet showed a 7.9 quake in the upper south island and I knew it would be bad..

I am in the central north Island about a 7 hour drive and a 3 hour ferry crossing away from the epi center in the south island and felt the main quake 4 minutes after it hit! It measured at about 5.4 in the north and set off a chain of quakes all the way up and down both Islands.

As the night went on more quakes were reported around the pacific ring up to 6.4 in Japan and smaller ones in Fiji, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Chile and Australia..
We had a very large super moon these last few nights which has something to do with plate movement for sure..
There was aslo some very bright lights and flashing in the sky at the time of the quake.. check out this vid..

https://www.sott.net/article/333794-Strange-glowing-in-the-sky-during-New-Zealands-earthquake-possibly-earthquake-lightning

A tsunami warning for the whole east coast was issued and within a couple of hours of the quake a couple of waves surged onto the coast.. nothing to serious as they were only about 2m in height.
The quakes epi centre was close to a small coastal town which has been cut off from the outside by land slides on the main coastal highway leaving them without power and water.
Helicopters and the military have been evacuating people from the area.
Most damage has been done to roading, rail and various shipping infrastructure and it has been said it will cost billions for the rebuild.
Lots of very large land slides and river slips etc. The seabed has risen up on the coast in some places a few meters lifting crayfish etc up out of the water..

The after shocks keep coming (over 1000 of them so far) some in the 6.0 to 6.5 range.

Here’s a few pics: