Farmers located on New Zealand’s South Island, especially near Kaikoura, where a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck on Friday are counting their lucky stars. Horticulture New Zealand Communcations Manager Leigh Catley has confirmed that there have been no reports of growers suffering any damage or loss of crops following the quake and aftershocks. “We had some problems with text messaging for a while, but that was it,” she told Fresh Plaza. The news means that market prices should not be affected, nor will supply of any fresh produce from the area.
The Spark mobile network was disrupted in the hours following the earthquake as the network was overloaded, and hundreds of New Zealanders took to social media describing the earthquake as one of the longest they have ever felt. Spark spokesperson Andrew Pirie also told New Zealand media there was potentially some hardware damage. “We do believe it's triggered a bit of a hardware fault which we're trying to rectify right now."
Of the nearby farms contacted, none reported any significant damage. Molesworth Station owners reported items falling off shelves, but everything else was ‘fine’ according to a story on 3news.
The quake struck just after 3:30pm local time. Reports of how deep underground it originated vary, with some media reporting 35km, others saying it was 50 or 76km deep and radio New Zealand saying it was 83km deep. The epicenter was around 40km north west of Kaikoura. Tremors were felt in the South Island capital of Wellington. Geonet, the agency that collects and reports on geological hazards in New Zealand, reported that the tremors would be widely felt because of the depth of the earthquake.
For more information:
Website: www.hortnz.co.nz