The devastation is horrible. My parents live 5 hours away in Alexandra, and they fortunately did not feel any affects of the quake. My niece lives in Christchurch, but luckily she was on her honeymoon in Australia. The bad part is that she was due back today but the airport is closed so she is stuck in Auz for now. My thoughts and prayers are going out to many family and friends. They have been through a lot of terrible times there. With the last earthquake happening in September, they were only just beginning to get over it. According to my niece they have had over 2000 aftershocks since september and that's what made this one even worse. No one thought it was going to "ramp up" to the level that it did.