My younger brother and family, and everybody else I know personally who lives in Chch, are safe. The company I work for has a plant down there which isn't damaged at all (although it hasn't been surveyed by an engineer yet), but the plant manager's house is uninhabitable. The death toll is expected to be over 200, which is quite high for a city with a population of only 400,000 people.

For those that don't know, on September 4 2010 Christchurch and surrounding areas received a 7.1 magnitude earthquake that resulted in some property damage but no loss of life - partly because it struck in the middle of the night and partly because the epicentre was deep underground and quite a way from heavily populated areas. This most recent quake was 6.3 in magnitude, so is officially an aftershock from last years quake. It struck in the middle of the day (12:51), was much shallower and much closer to the main urban areas.