New Zealand Quake Damage Costs seen $12 Billion
Baku, February 23 (AZERTAC). New Zealand rescuers pulled survivors out of rubble on Wednesday 24 hours after a devastating earthquake in Christchurch as the death toll climbed to 75, with many dozens still trapped inside collapsed buildings. Rescue teams had to perform amputations to free some of the 120 survivors so far pulled from the wreckage of Tuesday`s strong tremor which hit the country`s second-biggest city. Up to 300 people are still missing, Mayor Bob Parker said, and Prime Minister John Key said the death toll will rise. "We are getting texts (sms messages) and tapping sounds from the living and that`s our focus at the moment," police shift commander Russell Gibson said on Radio New Zealand. Tuesday`s 6.3 magnitude quake was the second to hit the historic tourist city in five months. It was New Zealand`s most deadly natural disaster for 80 years, and the damage could cost $12 billion.Early in the afternoon a woman, Ann Bodkin, was rescued from a finance company`s destroyed building, having spent a day trapped under a desk. Amid cheers, Bodkin, wrapped in blankets, was put into an ambulance suffering from only cuts and scratches.
"Getting her out is just stupendous. I`m a very happy man," her husband told the New Zealand Herald newspaper.
Hopes all but disappeared of finding survivors in another collapsed building, home to a TV broadcaster and an English language school.
An early report that a group of 15 people had been found there was denied, and among those still unaccounted for at the smouldering ruin site were 10 Japanese students at the school. Dave Lawrie, police operational commander, said the search at the collapsed Canterbury Television building had been called off to focus on buildings more likely to still have survivors. Previously, mayor Parker said up to around 100 people could be trapped.
Authorities have identified 55 dead bodies and there are another 20 still to be identified. The toll seems certain to rise further as the frantic search effort focuses on survivors ahead of retrieving and identifying corpses. Another police official said a temporary mortuary was being set up at an army base near the city to hold bodies.
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