The part twitter has played in the christchurch earthquake search and rescue

Social networking has played a massive part in the rescue operation at Christchurch.

A tweet from America saved two New Zealand sisters from fretting their father had perished in the quake.
Michelle Gourley was at her Kaiapoi when the quake struck and she immediately tried to reach her 70-year-old dad, John, on the phone.

Not able to get through, she jumped into the car to head to Opawa but was stuck in traffic, so called her sister Joanne in Auckland. They decided to call their brother Sean in San Francisco, who used to Twitter to put the call out to see if anyone knew of John’s whereabouts, NZPA reports.
Moments later a stranger replied: "Sean I'm near Opawa, what's address."
After being given the address, the stranger went to John’s home and found him alive and well, sitting in his car outside his badly damaged house, and tweeted the find.

Other stories of rescue have also been reported.

Google People Finder has set up a special Christchurch Earthquake page where people can either look for someone, or share information about someone they know or have found.
At last count, it was tracking 9500 records.

There have also been pages set up to help house those who have nowhere to stay.
A Facebook page Accommodation for Earthquake Stricken Cantabrians has been set up to help those looking for accommodation, and those who can offer it.

Quake Escape also offers users the chance to offer accommodation or help find it.
Christchurch City Council and the Government are both tweeting regular updates on their Twitter pages.
There have also been tales of loss.

A Facebook page Supporting Christchurch Earthquake shows comments from people who have lost loved ones.

Trish Davis says wrote “All day I’ve been struggling with the loss of my sister and friends from the earthquake”.

Live Twitter updates can be found at the page Earthquake New Zealand .