The New Zealand Earthquake an article that I wrote for an assignment back in 2011

This was a non-exclusive writing assignment, I was paid fifteen dollars upfront for this particular article.


http://voices.yahoo.com/the-zealand-earthquake-7926056.html?cat=16




The New Zealand Earthquake



I first learned of the earthquake in New Zealand, was from my friends who recently relocated to New Zealand. While they are not in the direct path where the earthquake hit, they have been affected in that they are being updated continuously. By local news media and by other friends that live nearer to the Christchurch area this is in the southern region of New Zealand.



My friends live in the northern area, in a place called Whakatane. New Zealand has two main islands, North Island, and South Island.



New Zealand is a beautiful country, my friends I made mention of the Howell family, have posted pictures of the beaches and sunsets, and seashells they have seen on the beach.



I met the Howell family almost 14 or 15 years ago, Mr. Howell was in Bible College, preparing for the ministry.



Relocating to another country is an experience in and of itself, especially when you consider all the people who knew are many miles away, and an ocean apart. Since they have relocated I believe they are planning to stay for a good little while.



Mr. Howell is working with a church in the country of New Zealand. He mentioned on his facebook wall, that his family did not have any damage, and only barely felt any rumbles from the earthquake.
However, he has a friend who is a little closer who did feel the earthquake; thankfully his friend also fared well, and did not have any major damage.



However, my friend mentioned that a police officer had mentioned that some buildings crumbled onto a bus, many people have been killed or are missing currently, in the country of New Zealand.
The country of New Zealand is considered to be a tourist country due to the beauty of the country.
This earthquake was shallow which is why that it was worse than the one the country had a few months ago, in September, of last year.



It was from my friend's facebook page that I first learned of this earthquake. It was almost a day later when I saw the yahoo, news articles about the earthquake. My friend posted within a few hours of the earth quake.



He was able to post from his computer. He did not mention if the power had been turned off or anything like that, but he did ask that others pray for the people of New Zealand.



Many people have died or been injured. This will change the lives of many people, in this country.
Besides this earthquake, my friend has learned a few other interesting things about the country of New Zealand, such as the prices of simple items like paper index cards are very high. He had neglected to purchase these for his children before leaving the states, when he remembered; he had decided he would just go to the store there, to buy index cards. However, when he went to the store, he learned that index cards can be very costly.