Some earthquake-affected residents in Christchurch are having their pensions and benefits cut, because they are earning interest on their insurance payouts.
Residents in one of the streets worst affected by the Canterbury earthquake say they're still in the dark about their future.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Mellanie Brown of Timaru encourages people to support Com'on Canterbury, to help people affected by the Christchurch earthquake".
A photograph of the Animal Rescue Unit preparing to drop off food at welfare centres and other sites in earthquake affected areas after the 22 February 2011 earthquake. In the background, a member of SPCA Canterbury is being interviewed by TVNZ.
Phil Holdstock, a homeowner; Leanne Curtis, relationships manager for the Canterbury Communities' Earthquake Recovery Network, a network of residents association and community group representatives from the earthquake-affected neighbourhoods of Canterbury; and Jeremy Johnson, insurance partner at Wynn Williams in Christchurch.
On 22 February 2011, Canterbury and its largest city Christchurch experienced its second major earthquake within six months. The region is facing major economic and organisational challenges in the aftermath of these events. Approximately 25% of all buildings in the Christchurch CBD have been “red tagged” or deemed unsafe to enter. The New Zealand Treasury estimates that the combined cost of the February earthquake and the September earthquake is approximately NZ$15 billion[2]. This paper examines the national and regional economic climate prior to the event, discusses the immediate economic implications of this event, and the challenges and opportunities faced by organisations affected by this event. In order to facilitate recovery of the Christchurch area, organisations must adjust to a new norm; finding ways not only to continue functioning, but to grow in the months and years following these earthquakes. Some organisations relocated within days to areas that have been less affected by the earthquakes. Others are taking advantage of government subsidised aid packages to help retain their employees until they can make long-term decisions about the future of their organisation. This paper is framed as a “report from the field” in order to provide insight into the early recovery scenario as it applies to organisations affected by the February 2011 earthquake. It is intended both to inform and facilitate discussion about how organisations can and should pursue recovery in Canterbury, and how organisations can become more resilient in the face of the next crisis.
To Christchurch now, where the people most affected by the region's earthquakes are getting a chance to tell their stories to a wider audience.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Meeting for earthquake affected residents at Burwood Primary to get EQC and insurance information. John Jennings demanding a few answers".
Cats, dogs, horses, parrots, rats, hedgehogs and turtles. Just like people, these animals were affected by the earthquakes in Christchurch. And two researchers have published a new book into just how big the impact of the September 2010 and February 2011 earthquakes were. 'Animals in Emergencies: Learning from the Christchurch Earthquakes' is co-authored by Canterbury University's associate professor Annie Potts, and former veterinary nurse Donelle Gadenne.
In Avonside, one of the suburbs most badly affected by the September 4th earthquake in Christchurch, a second massive clean-up operation is underway.
Some Canterbury homeowners say their houses have dropped in value because the damage to their properties was inadequately assessed by the Earthquake Commission after the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. Independent land surveyor, Adrian Cowie, and a Burwood homeowner affected by the quakes, Selwyn Stafford, talk about the issues facing them.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "John Key on his visit to Kaiapoi and Hororata to meet badly-affected people and see the damage from the earthquake. Prime Minister John Key talks to the media outside the Hororata church that was badly damaged by the earthquake".
The Canterbury Communities' Earthquake Recovery Network or CanCERN represents dozens of residents' associations and community groups. Tom McBrearty is chairman, whose own house has been badly affected.
More than two weeks after the massive earthquake that rocked Canterbury, some living in one of Christchurch's worst hit suburbs are feeling neglected and abandoned.
Earthquake events can be sudden, stressful, unpredictable, and uncontrollable events in which an individual’s internal and external assumptions of their environment may be disrupted. A number of studies have found depression, and other psychological symptoms may be common after natural disasters. They have also found an association between depression, losses and disruptions for survivors. The present study compared depression symptoms in two demographically matched communities differentially affected by the Canterbury (New Zealand) earthquakes. Hypotheses were informed by the theory of learned helplessness (Abramson, Seligman & Teasdale, 1978). A door-to-door survey was conducted in a more physically affected community sample (N=67) and a relatively unaffected community sample (N=67), 4 months after the February 2011 earthquake. Participants were again assessed approximately 10 months after the quake. Measures of depression, acute stress, anxiety, aftershock anxiety, losses, physical disruptions and psychological disruptions were taken. In addition, prior psychological symptoms, medication, alcohol and cigarette use were assessed. Participants in the more affected community reported higher depression scores than the less affected community. Overall, elevated depressive score at time 2 were predicted by depression at time 1, acute stress and anxiety symptoms at time 2, physical disruptions following the quake and psychosocial functioning disruptions at time 2. These results suggest the influence of acute stress, anxiety and disruptions in predicting depression sometime after an earthquake. Supportive interventions directed towards depression, and other psychological symptoms, may prove helpful in psychological adjustment following ongoing disruptive stressors and uncontrollable seismic activity.
On 14 November 2016 a magnitude Mw 7.8 earthquake struck the upper South Island of New Zealand with effects also being observed in the capital city, Wellington. The affected area has low population density but is the largest wine production region in New Zealand and also hosts the main national highway and railway routes connecting the country’s three largest cities of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, with Marlborough Port in Picton providing connection between the South and North Islands. These transport facilities sustained substantial earthquake related damage, causing major disruptions. Thousands of landslides and multiple new faults were counted in the area. The winery facilities and a large number of commercial buildings and building components (including brick masonry veneers, historic masonry construction, and chimneys), sustained damage due to the strong vertical and horizontal acceleration. Presented herein are field observations undertaken the day immediately after the earthquake, with the aim to document earthquake damage and assess access to the affected area.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Prime Minister John Key on his visit to Kaiapoi and Hororata to meet people badly affected and see the damage from the earthquake. John Key talks to Jenni Carter, Dean of the Hororata church, that was badly damaged by the earthquake".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Prime Minister John Key on his visit to Kaiapoi and Hororata to meet people badly affected and see the damage from the earthquake. John Key talks to Jenni Carter, Dean of the Hororata church, that was badly damaged by the earthquake".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Hold Tight: Lauren Kys, Isla Redgrave and Isla Nelson, all aged four, hide under the desk during an earthquake drill at the Terrace Kindergarten in Alexandra yesterday. The kindergarten had a dress up day to raise funds for Christchurch kindergartens affected by earthquakes".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "John Key on his visit to Kaiapoi and Hororata, to meet badly-affected people and see the damage from the earthquake. Kaiapoi residents Cathryn and Jessie Hopkinson after talking to Prime Minister John Key about their badly-damaged home from the earthquake".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Pupils at St James School with their coin trail, created to raise money for St James Catholic School in Christchurch affected by the earthquake".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Pupils at St James School with their coin trail, created to raise money for St James Catholic School in Christchurch affected by the earthquake".
Retired Christchurch people affected by the earthquakes are disappointed they have been left out of new rules aimed at giving people in retirement villages better payouts after natural disasters.
Among those businesses most affected by the end of the welfare scheme are cafes, restaurants and bars. 100 such businesses have closed in the central city alone because of the earthquake.
A study of employees affected by the Canterbury earthquakes has found they're more likely to have jobs - and get better pay - than people in similar roles in other parts of the country.
Rapid, reliable information on earthquake-affected structures' current damage/health conditions and predicting what would happen to these structures under future seismic events play a vital role in accelerating post-event evaluations, leading to optimized on-time decisions. Such rapid and informative post-event evaluations are crucial for earthquake-prone areas, where each earthquake can potentially trigger a series of significant aftershocks, endangering the community's health and wealth by further damaging the already-affected structures. Such reliable post-earthquake evaluations can provide information to decide whether an affected structure is safe to stay in operation, thus saving many lives. Furthermore, they can lead to more optimal recovery plans, thus saving costs and time. The inherent deficiency of visual-based post-earthquake evaluations and the importance of structural health monitoring (SHM) methods and SHM instrumentation have been highlighted within this thesis, using two earthquake-affected structures in New Zealand: 1) the Canterbury Television (CTV) building, Christchurch; 2) the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) building, Wellington. For the first time, this thesis verifies the theoretically- and experimentally validated hysteresis loop analysis (HLA) SHM method for the real-world instrumented structure of the BNZ building, which was damaged severely due to three earthquakes. Results indicate the HLA-SHM method can accurately estimate elastic stiffness degradation for this reinforced concrete (RC) pinched structure across the three earthquakes, which remained unseen until after the third seismic event. Furthermore, the HLA results help investigate the pinching effects on the BNZ building's seismic response. This thesis introduces a novel digital clone modelling method based on the robust and accurate SHM results delivered by the HLA method for physical parameters of the monitored structure and basis functions predicting the changes of these physical parameters due to future earthquake excitations. Contrary to artificial intelligence (AI) based predictive methods with black-box designs, the proposed predictive method is entirely mechanics-based with an explicitly-understandable design, making them more trusted and explicable to stakeholders engaging in post-earthquake evaluations, such as building owners and insurance firms. The proposed digital clone modelling framework is validated using the BNZ building and an experimental RC test structure damaged severely due to three successive shake-table excitations. In both structures, structural damage intensifies the pinching effects in hysteresis responses. Results show the basis functions identified from the HLA-SHM results for both structures under Event 1 can online estimate structural damage due to subsequent Events 2-3 from the measured structural responses, making them valuable tool for rapid warning systems. Moreover, the digital twins derived for these two structures under Event 1 can successfully predict structural responses and damage under Events 2-3, which can be integrated with the incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) method to assess structural collapse and its financial risks. Furthermore, it enables multi-step IDA to evaluate earthquake series' impacts on structures. Overall, this thesis develops an efficient method for providing reliable information on earthquake-affected structures' current and future status during or immediately after an earthquake, considerably guaranteeing safety. Significant validation is implemented against both experimental and real data of RC structures, which thus clearly indicate the accurate predictive performance of this HLA-based method.
Shell shocked residents still picking up the pieces in one of the worst earthquake affected parts of Canterbury, say a looming rates rise to pay for repairs will cripple them.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Teddy time: A Whanganui man has sent dozens of teddy bears to Rangiora to be distributed to children affected by the Canterbury earthquake. Ted Cheriton sent the teddies to National MP Kate Wilkinson's office to be distributed. Ms Wilkinson said it was a fantastic gesture. 'I am sure they will be welcome in Kaiapoi and beach settlements where damage from the earthquake has severely affected many families', she said. 'Hopefully these teddies will bring a smile to some young children and cheer them up in what has been a very trying and traumatic time'".
More than 600 Christchurch home-owners face a wait of up to 18 months before its decided who foots the bill for earthquake repairs that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The problem - first revealed on Checkpoint in March - is that owners bought homes thinking all quake damage had been identified and fixed - only to find more problems that weren't addressed. The people affected cannot claim on their insurance - because the damage pre-dates them buying the house - and any grant from the Earthquake Commission is capped. EQC has publicly apologised to those affected but the Minster, Megan Woods, says it's unclear who will pay for the needed repairs.
Conservationist, forager, angler and former fisheries observer Peter Langlands talks about the many threats to our lakes and waterways. Lynn Freeman asked the Cantabrian how the earthquakes affected Christchurch birds, as there was talk that they left the city.