EDIT: The Big Picture is featuring powerful and scary photos of the damage.
We’re just starting to find out how bad today’s M6.3 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand was.
A former professor of ours when we were in New Zealand in 2006 dropped us an email this evening and let us know that it was going to be bad. He also informed us that the iconic Christchurch Cathedral in the center of the city was destroyed.
It was an absolutely beautiful building – originally built in mid-1800’s and completed in 1904.
As we saw it in 2006:
And as it lays today:
[via TwitPic]
My heart goes out to everyone in Christchurch. This is going to be fairly bad.
Unfortunately your photo of how the cathedral looks now is out of date. Another massive earthquake on June 13 broke the area where the rose window sits. for us in Christchurch the loss of our cathedral is huge. Thanks for your photos.