New Zealand faces huge damage bill from powerful quake’s ‘utter devastation’

New Zealand faces a battle to recover from the powerful earthquake that struck the country Monday as landslides cut off communities, strong aftershocks hit and thousands were left without vital infrastructure.

The magnitude 7.5 quake struck at 12:02 a.m. local time north of the South Island city of Christchurch, where 185 people were killed in an earthquake in 2011. It violently shook the capital city of Wellington at the southern end of the North Island and triggered a tsunami warning. A 6.2 magnitude quake rattled New Zealand’s South Island hours later. Two people died.

Prime Minister John Key, who flew over affected areas by helicopter, estimated the cost of the damage could run into a “couple of billion” dollars.

“It’s just utter devastation, I just don’t know ... that’s months of work,” Key told Civil Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee after flying over the coastal town of Kaikoura, according to Brownlee’s Twitter account.

He described landslips in the area as “just horrendous”.

Power lines and telecommunications were down, with huge cracks in roads, land slips and other damage to infrastructure making it hard to reach the worst-affected areas.

A tsunami warning that led to mass evacuations after the original quake was downgraded after large swells hit New Zealand’s capital Wellington, in the North Island, and Christchurch.