11,000 confirmed now. Staggering numbers.
I remember my friend that worked for the Civil Response team in Wellington saying that their worse case scenario model predicted ~10,000 dead if a big one hit Wellington at lunchtime. As was much the case in the Christchurch earthquake, the older buildings have brick facades that are designed to fall outwards. Unlike Christchurch, Wellington's central business area is much more dense, with a greater concentration of high rise buildings in far more mountainous conditions. That is thousands predicted to be dead in a place with many buildings now built to withstand big tremors.