Earthquake in NZ

[charisstoma]

It is way too early to know how the Lj people in New Zealand were affected but..

If they could post that they are okay when things get somewhat more condusive to that sort of thing, it would make me very happy. *hugs*

Comments

[theotherdibbler.livejournal.com]

Did you hear from your Kiwi friends?

[charisstoma.livejournal.com]

Not yet. Things are still pretty dicy yet there and I'm sure that they have other things going on that are more important. Hoping that things are doing okay there for them and their families.

[charisstoma.livejournal.com]

Have discovered that Chris King is actually in the region of Wellington on your large island and she's posted on Feb 22nd. *happy sighs*

Don't know about Meridae yet. Last quake she reported that there was minimal shaking so she might be well away from the epicenter but I don't know where she works and the timing was mid-day. She's near Dunedin; looks relatively far enough away(300+ km). Don't know about her family though.

[theotherdibbler.livejournal.com]

Well it's not my island, totally different country. :)

Well if she's in Dunedin then that's heaps ages away from Christchurch, so she ought to be fine, unless she was visiting for some reason. But yes, families are always a concern. I hope they're all okay.

[charisstoma.livejournal.com]

Chris King talks of Burrendong which is Sidney-ish. NSW. Had to go look at Google maps. A Tale of two Wellingtons.

Thanks, I hoping she & her family is all okay too.

I swear I'm going to put up a map and put stick pins in it for where people are. If you see a giant pin coming down in your region, move out of the way.

Meridae just commented. All fine and untouched. Relief.

[theotherdibbler.livejournal.com]

Oh, Wellington in Australia? So confusing! Don't you hate places with the same name? There's also a town in America called London, isn't there?

...Dude, weird. One of our seed collection workshops is going to be in Wellington, with a visit to Burrendong Arboretum. My work colleague knows the area well (and I've been to the town myself a few times). Two degrees of separation anyone?

Also, your geography sucks - Wellington NSW is nowhere near Sydney NSW (just as Dunedin is nowhere near Christchurch). Several hours drive, yo!

Hooray that people are safe. :D

[charisstoma.livejournal.com]

*sniffs* Never claimed to be good at geography. Looked at map and Sydney was the closest big City. Of course I forgot that I was talking to someone who lives in that area and didn't need clarification after Burrendong. *head desk*
200 miles pffft. This is Texas, place of wide open land and no one goes the speed limit if it's anywhere near 65 mph and straight highway. Of course under those conditions the highway dept. puts up signs like 75 anyway, they know what we are all like. *grins* 75 = 85.

[theotherdibbler.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't live in that area. I live in that state, but it takes most of a day driving for me to get to either Sydney or Wellington. One hour's drive counts as 'near', five or six hours, not so much. :P

And Sydney is the biggest city in the country, plus it's the state capital, if you're going to use cities that size as place markers, you're going to be sticking to the coast (and get glared at by everyone who doesn't live in a big coastal city and hates people who assume that these are the important places - which is everyone who doesn't live in a big coastal city :P). I'm actually closer to Canberra than Sydney, but even that is a good few hours away (also not coastal, but by the same token, not as big as Sydney and Melbourne). I don't know what the distribution of large cities is like in the US, but I'm going to guess you've got rather more large, inland cities than we do.

Yeah, Wikipedia would seem to support this theory, New South Wales is bigger than Texas, but Texas has more people in it than the whole of Australia - ergo, your definition of a big city versus my definition of a major population centre are going to differ by a phenomenal degree. This is farmland lady, we don't got no stinkin' cities here.

This is Texas, place of wide open land
Remember you are talking to an Australian. ;P
Also, see my previous comment about population - how do you have any open land with that many people trying to fit into one state? Wouldn't you all be tripping over each other all the time? How can there be open land when you've got to fit houses for everyone? (Okay, I'm teasing, but that really is a shocking difference - you have more people in your state than I have in my entire country O.o)


85 mph = 136km/hr - yeah, okay, that's fast. O.o
The highest posted speed limits here are 110km/hr, most major roads between towns will be 100km/hr (not that people drive at that, I myself tend to stick to 105, and might go up to 120 if I'm overtaking someone or haven't realised I've been accelerating). It's generally accepted that mosty people will drive at 5km above the posted limit, especially on open roads, but 135km/hr? That just sounds dangerous, and if highway patrol see you, you will lose points off your licence and be fined.

[charisstoma.livejournal.com]

Major Highways are smooth enough to roll marbles on and expect that they will roll a distance. 136km/hr is usually on a 3 lane divided highway (3 lanes going both directions with grassy median between them) though I've seen two lane traffic roads with that speed limit too. In those cases there will usually be a car width smooth paved shoulder (extra lane for stopping if you need to) and in Texas if you aren't going as fast as everyone else and traffic is building up behind you you pull over onto that shoulder while driving until those people have gone by then you ease yourself back on.

Texas has Houston which is a whopping big city complex, DFW which is Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington/and a bunch of other cities that have all grown together into one metroplex, then there's the capitol Austin,San Antonio, El Paso, and yeah on and on. Lots of ranch land with large cities scattered.

This site ranks the cities by population.
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ref/abouttx/popcity32000.html

[theotherdibbler.livejournal.com]

See, even your highways are bigger and more traffic-filled than ours (which makes sense when you have so many more people using them). Too many people. Just too many. *shakes head*


Compare.


Unless you're really close to a major city, highways are at most two lanes in each direction, separated by a nature strip, with a 110km/hr speed limit, otherwise roads between towns are regular two lane roads (1 road, 2 lanes, one in each direction) with a limit of 100km/hr. And by 'major city' I mean 'has a population of over 100,000'). It is very uncommon to get stuck in traffic in a 110 zome (again, traffic issues only arise when you're close to a major city). I can't imagine travelling on an open road between towns/cities and being constantly surrounded by other traffic, no matter how fast they may or may not be going. O.o

[charisstoma.livejournal.com]

Sydney has a larger population than Houston. Never would I want to drive in Houston. People drive crazy there and it was bad enough here today with the way some of the vehicles were being driven.
Semi truck turning a corner should have clued me, it turned and I watched the back left wheels on the trailer leave the ground it was tipping so badly.

Can't imagine what driving with 3.5 million people around would be like. Hazardous?