Canterbury Earthquake - Mark Littleton
Audio, Radio New Zealand
Mark Littleton is the Chief Fire Officer in Lyttleton.
Mark Littleton is the Chief Fire Officer in Lyttleton.
Chris Brown is in Lyttleton - the epicentre of the quake.
Peter Davy is the chief executive of Ports of Lyttleton.
Barry Saunders is at the epicentre of the earthquake - Lyttleton.
Christchurch has been shaken by another strong aftershock. A magnitude 5.5 earthquake hit ten kilometres east of Lyttleton harbour.
The community of Lyttelton, severely cut off from Christchurch access routes during the earthquakes, is planning to become more self reliant.
Almost three days on from the 6 point 3 earthquake that shattered central Christchurch and Lyttleton and searchers are continuing to find more bodies but no more survivors in the rubble.
The steamer run from Wellington to Lyttleton is 175 miles, and the fare £1. As we travelled at night time and in a very fast boat we saw nothing, and in fact, as we got in very early in the morning…
Six months after the 4 September 2010 Mw 7.1 Darfield (Canterbury) earthquake, a Mw 6.2 Christchurch (Lyttelton) aftershock struck Christchurch on the 22 February 2011. This earthquake was centred approximately 10km south-east of the Christchurch CBD at a shallow depth of 5km, resulting in intense seismic shaking within the Christchurch central business district (CBD). Unlike the 4 Sept earthquake when limited-to-moderate damage was observed in engineered reinforced concrete (RC) buildings [35], in the 22 February event a high number of RC Buildings in the Christchurch CBD (16.2 % out of 833) were severely damaged. There were 182 fatalities, 135 of which were the unfortunate consequences of the complete collapse of two mid-rise RC buildings. This paper describes immediate observations of damage to RC buildings in the 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Some preliminary lessons are highlighted and discussed in light of the observed performance of the RC building stock. Damage statistics and typical damage patterns are presented for various configurations and lateral resisting systems. Data was collated predominantly from first-hand post-earthquake reconnaissance observations by the authors, complemented with detailed assessment of the structural drawings of critical buildings and the observed behaviour. Overall, the 22 February 2011 Mw 6.2 Christchurch earthquake was a particularly severe test for both modern seismically-designed and existing non-ductile RC buildings. The sequence of earthquakes since the 4 Sept 2010, particularly the 22 Feb event has confirmed old lessons and brought to life new critical ones, highlighting some urgent action required to remedy structural deficiencies in both existing and “modern” buildings. Given the major social and economic impact of the earthquakes to a country with strong seismic engineering tradition, no doubt some aspects of the seismic design will be improved based on the lessons from Christchurch. The bar needs to and can be raised, starting with a strong endorsement of new damage-resisting, whilst cost-efficient, technologies as well as the strict enforcement, including financial incentives, of active policies for the seismic retrofit of existing buildings at a national scale.
The Alps and ranges around New Zealand are now laden with snow yet while most of us are hunkering down and keeping warm, some in Canterbury are still having to get on within a broken city following this year's earlier devastating earthquakes. Bryan began by speaking to Major Mike Allwright of the Salvation Army and followed up with Lyttleton musician Lindon Puffin. Bryan also spoke to Christine Parker from the Eastern suburb of Aranui and Regina Nyadani who lives in central Christchurch with her family.