For the second time in the past six month, Christchurch, New Zealand’s second largest city, has been stuck by a catastrophic earthquake. The first was powerful enough to bend train tracks and, according to CNN, at least 65 people have been reported dead following this most recent magnitude 6.3 quake. (Photo above on a fallen Catholic church via The Atlantic)

“This is just heartbreaking,” New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said during a trip to survey the damage. “This may be New Zealand’s darkest day.”

The 6.3-magnitude quake struck Christchurch during the lunchtime rush. Frantic rescuers scrambled to reach those trapped beneath the rubble hours after the earthquake hit. Dazed, bleeding residents wandered through streets strewn with debris and piles of concrete.

The human toll will likely continue to mount as rescuers attempt to minimize casualties and overburdened hospitals triage the wounded.

In terms of economic loss, it’s obviously way too early to know anything for sure, but catastrophe modeling firm Eqecat expects the damage to be in the billions.

Estimating damages from this event is very challenging. The most fragile buildings were already damaged in September. Extensive damage from the September event is only partially repaired, and the state of repairs may have left many buildings in a more vulnerable position awaiting repair completion. EQECAT is researching this area more extensively to develop a method to separate the new damage estimate, but current indicators are that damage from this new event will exceed $1 Billion (USD).

Here is video of the disaster.

via CNN