WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- A powerful earthquake struck New Zealand's South Island early today, killing at least two people, triggering a small tsunami and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, but largely sparing the country the devastation it saw five years ago when a deadly earthquake struck the same region.
Strong aftershocks and landslides continued to shake the country, rattling the nerves of exhausted residents, many of whom spent a sleepless night huddled outside after fleeing for higher ground to avoid the tsunamis.
The magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck just after midnight in New Zealand in a mostly rural area dotted with small towns. Near the epicenter, it opened up snaking fissures in roads and triggered landslides.
It caused damage in Wellington, the capital, more than 120 miles to the north and was also strongly felt to the south in the city of Christchurch, which was devastated by the 2011 earthquake that killed 185 people. Residents said the shaking went on for about three minutes and was followed by a number of strong aftershocks.
Police said one person died in the small coastal town of Kaikoura and another in Mount Lyford, a nearby ski resort. The New Zealand Herald reported that the Mount Lyford death had resulted from a heart attack. Several other people suffered minor injuries in Kaikoura, police spokesman Rachel Purdom said.
Prime Minister John Key flew over the destruction in Kaikoura by helicopter in the afternoon, as aftershocks kicked up dust from the landslides below. Cars could be seen on their sides, and parts of the road were clearly impassable. Resident Terry Thompson said the quake completely cut off road access to the town of 2,000.
"It's just utter devastation. ... That's months of work," Key told acting Civil Defense Minister Gerry Brownlee as they hovered above the damage. Key and Brownlee estimated the cleanup would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and clearing the debris and blocked roads could take months.
Defense force personnel were planning to take food, water and other supplies to Kaikoura on Tuesday.
Key said waves of about 6.6 feet hit the coast, but the tsunami threat had since been downgraded to coastal warnings.
He said authorities had no reason to believe the death toll would rise above the two reported fatalities.
"But of course there are isolated parts of the country which we don't have perfect eyes on, so we can't be 100 percent sure," he said.
Key said officials had decided not to declare a national emergency because the nation's regions were able to adequately cope with the situation.
The quake temporarily knocked out New Zealand's emergency call number, 111, police reported. In Wellington, it collapsed a ferry loading ramp, broke windows and caused items to fall from shelves. It also forced hundreds of tourists onto the streets as hotels were evacuated. Officials in Wellington urged people to stay out of its central business district until the risk of damage to its buildings could be assessed.
Australians Paul and Sandra Wardrop and their children Alexander, 15, and William, 12, were on the 10th floor of the Park Hotel when the shaking began.
"We felt that the building was going to collapse," Sandra Wardrop said. "You could hear the sounds of the building shaking and see cracks appearing in the walls, in the plasterwork in the bedroom."
The family was among dozens of people who took shelter in the capital's parliamentary complex, which threw open its doors. It was William's 12th birthday, and while he didn't get to tour Wellington as planned, he did get to meet the prime minister, who visited the displaced tourists.
In Cheviot, a small town thought to be close to the epicenter of Sunday's earthquake, there were no reports of casualties.
"There is minimal damage to buildings that we can see," Grant Burnett, the chief of the Cheviot volunteer fire brigade, said in a telephone interview. "It is surprising, because it was a big quake."
Burnett said that some properties along the coast had been evacuated, but none were seriously damaged by the surge in seawater. The fire brigade went door to door to check on residents, especially the elderly, he said.
"We are just a wee town," Burnett said. "Everyone was OK. We will be checking again in the daylight."
New Zealand, with a population of 4.7 million, sits on the "Ring of Fire," an arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes are common.
The quake brought back memories of the magnitude-6.3 earthquake that struck Christchurch in 2011 and destroyed much of the downtown area. That quake was one of New Zealand's worst disasters, causing an estimated $25 billion in damage.
Today's quake was stronger, but its epicenter was 14 miles below the earth's surface and much farther from major urban areas. Location, depth and other factors beyond magnitude all contribute to the destructive power of an earthquake. Earthquakes tend to be more strongly felt on the surface when they are shallow.
Elliot Fim, a regional official in Christchurch, said in a telephone interview that there were no reports of damage, injuries or fatalities from today's quake. The Fire Department was dealing with a large number of emergency calls seeking assistance.
Fim said people living along about 200 miles of coastline had been evacuated. Some roadways and a building were reported damaged, but people had been able to move to high ground.
Christchurch resident Hannah Gin, whose house was damaged in the 2011 earthquake, said today's quake was far less violent -- no jarring up and down or side to side, just a long, rolling sensation. But because it went on for three minutes, she was less concerned about running for cover than she was about motion sickness, she said.
"I could hear the sliding door sliding back and forth, and we've got washing hanging up and I could see the washing moving," Gin said. "It just kept going and going."
She said her house did not appear to have sustained any new damage Monday. She said she had heard from many of her friends who live in the city, and all were safe.
Information for this article was contributed by Nick Perry and Kristen Gelineau of The Associated Press; and by Michelle Innis of The New York Times.
A Section on 11/14/2016