This paper presents a qualitative study with multiple refugee background communities living in Christchurch, New Zealand about their perspectives and responses to the Canterbury earthquakes of 2010-2011 (32 semi-structured interviews and 11 focus group discussions comprising 112 participants). Whilst the Canterbury earthquakes created significant challenges for the entire region, several refugee background communities found multiple ways to effectively respond to such adversity. Central to this response were their experiences of belonging which were comprised of both ‘civic’ and ‘ethno’ conceptualisations. This discussion includes an analysis on the intersectionality of identity to highlight the gendered, contextual and chronological influences that impact people’s perspectives of and responses to a disaster. As the study was conducted over 18 months, the paper discusses how social capital resources and experiences of belonging can help inform urban disaster risk reduction (DRR) with refugee groups. http://3icudr.org/program
Prime Minister John Key drives a tractor to which is attached a crane and a huge demolition ball in the shape of MP Gerry Brownlee's head; the ball smashes against a historic building bringing stone pediments down. Context - Gerry Brownlee, who is Earthquake Recovery Minister, has caused a stir by suggesting that if he had his way some of Christchurch's older buildings would be "down tomorrow". He also said the price of saving some historic buildings badly damaged in the February 22 earthquake was too high. People had died in the quake because of attempts to save historic buildings badly damaged in the September 4 quake. Brownlee said he had no regrets despite the stir his comments caused - but he was annoyed by suggestions the Cathedral and Riccarton House were among buildings he thought should be bowled. He believed those buildings should be saved, and they would be. "I'm not a philistine; I was chairman of the trust that actually saved Riccarton House from the bulldozers in 1990. "I understand conservation architecture very well and I do have an appreciation of heritage buildings." Original cartoon held at A-474-048 Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
In the top two frames a man discovers a pile of stinking bones and scratches his head in puzzlement; he is pleased when a second man rushes towards him with another bone which, in the lower frame, he proceeds to try to fit together with a bone from the original stack. The second man then realizes that the dinosaur from which he took the bone is starting to shudder and quake. Context - This is a metaphor about the rebuilding the city of Christchurch after the earthquake of 22 February 2011. Debates are beginning about the preserving or knocking down of historic buildings as well as the rebuilding or repairing of houses. Colour and black and white versions available Quantity: 2 digital cartoon(s).
Text above the image reads 'Time capsules unearthed in Christchurch' A man reads a newspaper which says 'Petrol is so cheap you can actually afford to run one of these new-fangled motor cars...' Context - when a bronze statue of Christchurch founder John Robert Godley, which stood in Cathedral Square, toppled during the Christchurch earthquake of 22 February 2011, a crane driver clearing rubble discovered two time capsules. One is a small glass capsule with a hand-written letter on gold parchment inside, while the other is a large metal-like object, yet to be opened. A Nelson newspaper 'The Colonist' in an article published in 1918, about the time capsule in Christchurch said, "This statute of John Robert Godley executed by Thomas Woolner was erected in the west side of the Cathedral Square by the Provincial Government of Canterbury, and unveiled by the late Sir Charles Christopher Bowen on August 6 1867, it was moved to this site in March 1918." The man in the cartoon reads a bout the cost of petrol being incredibly cheap and thinks it refers to today's prices. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
Following the 22 February 2011, MW 6.2 earthquake located on a fault beneath the Port Hills of Christchurch, fissuring of up to several hundred metres in length was observed in the loess and loess-colluvium of foot-slope positions in north-facing valleys of the Port Hills. The fissuring was observed in all major valleys, occurred at similar low altitudes, showing a contour-parallel orientation and often accompanied by both lateral compression/extension features and spring formation in the valley floor below. Fissuring locations studied in depth included Bowenvale Valley, Hillsborough Valley, Huntlywood Terrace–Lucas Lane, Bridle Path Road, and Maffeys Road–La Costa Lane. Investigations into loess soil, its properties and mannerisms, as well as international examples of its failure were undertaken, including study of the Loess Plateau of China, the Teton Dam, and palaeo-fissuring on Banks Peninsula. These investigations lead to the conclusion that loess has the propensity to fail, often due to the infiltration of water, the presence of which can lead to its instantaneous disaggregation. Literature study and laboratory analysis of Port Hills loess concluded that is has the ability to be stable in steep, sub-vertical escarpments, and often has a sub-vertically jointed internal structure and has a peak shear strength when dry. Values for cohesion, c (kPa) and the internal friction angle, ϕ (degrees) of Port Hills loess were established. The c values for the 40 Rapaki Road, 3 Glenview Terrace loess samples were 13.4 kPa and 19.7 kPa, respectively. The corresponding ϕ values were thought unusually high, at 42.0° and 43.4°.The analysed loess behaved very plastically, with little or no peak strength visible in the plots as the test went almost directly to residual strength. A geophysics resistivity survey showed an area of low resistivity which likely corresponds to a zone of saturated clayey loess/loess colluvium, indicating a high water table in the area. This is consistent with the appearances of local springs which are located towards the northern end of each distinct section of fissure trace and chemical analysis shows that they are sourced from the Port Hills volcanics. Port Hills fissuring may be sub-divided into three categories, Category A, Category B, and Category C, each characterised by distinctive features of the fissures. Category A includes fissures which display evidence of, spring formation, tunnel-gullying, and lateral spreading-like behaviour or quasi-toppling. These fissures are several metres down-slope of the loess-bedrock interface, and are in valleys containing a loess-colluvium fill. Category B fissures are in wider valleys than those in Category A, and the valleys contain estuarine silty sediments which liquefied during the earthquake. Category C fissures occurred at higher elevations than the fissures in the preceding categories, being almost coincident with bedrock outcropping. It is believed that the mechanism responsible for causing the fissuring is a complex combination of three mechanisms: the trampoline effect, bedrock fracturing, and lateral spreading. These three mechanisms can be applied in varying degrees to each of the fissuring sites in categories A, B, and C, in order to provide explanation for the observations made at each. Toppling failure can describe the soil movement as a consequence of the a three causative mechanisms, and provides insight into the movement of the loess. Intra-loess water coursing and tunnel gullying is thought to have encouraged and exacerbated the fissuring, while not being the driving force per se. Incipient landsliding is considered to be the least likely of the possible fissuring interpretations.
Understanding posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in police first-responders is an underdeveloped field. Using a cross-sectional survey, this study investigated demographic and occupational characteristics, coping resources and processes, along with first-responder roles and consequences 18 months following a disaster. Hierarchical linear regression (N = 576) showed that greater symptom levels were significantly positively associated with negative emotional coping (β = .31), a communications role (β = .08) and distress following exposure to resource losses (β = .14), grotesque scenes (β = .21), personal harm (β = .14), and concern for significant others (β = .17). Optimism alone was negatively associated (β=−15), with the overall model being a modest fit (adjusted R2 = .39). The findings highlight variables for further study in police.
We examine the role of business interruption (BI) insurance in business recovery following the Christchurch earthquake in 2011. First, we ask whether BI insurance increases the likelihood of business survival in the immediate (3-6 months) aftermath of a disaster. We find positive but statistically insignificant evidence that those firms that had incurred damage, but were covered by BI insurance, had higher likelihood of survival post-quake compared with those firms that did not have any insurance. For the medium-term (2-3 years) survival of firms, our results show a more explicit role for insurance. Firms with BI insurance experience increased productivity and improved performance following a catastrophe. Furthermore, we find that those organisations that receive prompt and full payments of their claims have a better recovery than those that had protracted or inadequate claims payments, but this difference between the two groups is not statistically significant. We find no statistically significant evidence that the latter group (inadequate payment) did any better than those organisations that had damage but no insurance coverage. In general, our analysis indicates the importance not only of adequate insurance coverage, but also of an insurance system that delivers prompt claim payments. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in 'The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice'. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41288-017-0067-y. The following terms of use apply: https://www.springer.com/gp/open-access/publication-policies/aam-terms-of-use.
In this paper Paul Millar outlines the development of the University of Canterbury Quakebox project, a collaborative venture between the UC CEISMIC Canterbury Earthquakes Digital Archive and the New Zealand Institute of Language Brain and Behaviour to preserve people’s earthquake stories for the purposes of research, teaching and commemoration. The project collected over 700 stories on high definition video, and Millar is now looking at using the corpus to underpin a longitudinal study of post-quake experience.
Ports of Auckland says incidents such as the strikes which crippled its operations and the Canterbury earthquakes which disrupted the Port of Lyttelton's operations shows New Zealand needs a resilient port sector.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "A massive 7.4 magnitude earthquake has hit Christchurch and the wider South Island, causing widespread damage, two serious injuries and power cuts to most of the city".
Fire Service Assistant Area Commander Dave Burford with LT Gore on the HMNZS in Otago. The ship travelled to Lyttelton after the 22 February 2011 earthquake to help in the relief effort.
A truck carrying a generator being unloaded from the HMNZS Canterbury. The Royal New Zealand Navy delivered machinery and equipment to Christchurch for use in the recovery effort after the Christchurch Earthquake.
A photograph of flowers and other items placed outside the site of the CTV Building on Madras Street in memorial of those who lost their lives in the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
Bronze award present to Matthew Prendergast and Thomas Nation, both from Christchurch. Pictured here with Vice-Chancellor Dr Rod Carr, Prime Minister John Key and Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Gerry Brownlee.
Bronze award present to Matthew Prendergast and Thomas Nation, both from Christchurch. Pictured here with Vice-Chancellor Dr Rod Carr, Prime Minister John Key and Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Gerry Brownlee.
Photograph captioned by the New Zealand Defence Force, "Chief of Defence Force, Major General Rhys Jones boarding a Iroquois helicopter as part of his operational tour of earthquake affected areas of Christchurch".
Silver Award Hamish Drake (second from the left) and Andrew Chalmers (middle). Pictured here with Vice-Chancellor Dr Rod Carr, Prime Minister John Key and Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Gerry Brownlee.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Aerial shot of the fault line that ruptured, causing Saturday's 7.1 earthquake. The fault line went through the front door and out the back of this property".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "The Jacobsen Tile building (formerly Maddison's Pub) on the corner of Moorhouse Avenue and Montreal Street has its cornice work demolished after it become unsafe during Wednesday's earthquake".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "The Jacobsen Tile building (formerly Maddison's Pub) on the corner of Moorhouse Avenue and Montreal Street has its cornice work demolished after it become unsafe during Wednesday's earthquake".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "The Jacobsen Tile building (formerly Maddison's Pub) on the corner of Moorhouse Avenue and Montreal Street has its cornice work demolished after it become unsafe during Wednesday's earthquake".
A wreath of flowers from the Honorary Minoru Kiuchi, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs in Japan, laid at the CTV building site on the memorial of the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
An aerial photograph looking south over the Arts Centre on Worcester Boulevard. Scaffolding and cranes can be seen around the building which is having extensive repairs done to it after the earthquakes.
A photograph of the earthquake damage to Ambrose Heal Furniture on the corner of Barbadoes Street and Edgeware Road. The brick walls have cracked and crumbled, exposing the inside of the building.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "A massive 7.4 magnitude earthquake has hit Christchurch and the wider South Island, causing widespread damage, two serious injuries and power cuts to most of the city".
Deputy Administrator for Protection and National Preparedness at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Tim Manning, being interviewed by the media in front of the Cranmer Centre about the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Arnold and Joy Pohio of Kaiapoi, north of Christchurch, speak of their son Joseph Pohio 40 yrs, who was killed during the earthquake while in the central city."
A truck carrying a generator being unloaded from the HMNZS Canterbury. The Royal New Zealand Navy delivered machinery and equipment to Christchurch for use in the recovery effort after the Christchurch Earthquake.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Post-earthquake family for Quality Bakers staff at the Horticultural Centre in Hagley Park. City councillor Aaron Keown gets some ice cream from his daughter Lucy, aged 6".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Nader Guirguis assists Michael Awadalla with his traditional Arabic headdress at an event in Victoria Square to raise funds for the Coptic Church, damaged in the Canterbury earthquake".