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A photograph of a Fire Rescue Incident Control Point set up on Worcester Street, near Latimer Square.
A photograph of a camouflaged armoured vehicle on St Asaph Street.
A photograph of a camouflaged armoured vehicle on St Asaph Street.
A photograph of Worcester Street near Latimer Square. A police car is parked on the road. In the distance, tents have been set up in Latimer Square.
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A wreath from the Singapore Contingent lying on a table in the memorial tent at the Botanic Gardens. The tent was set up for people who wanted to make a tribute to those who lost their lives during the Canterbury earthquakes. A note on the wreath reads, "The Singapore Contingent wishes to express our deepest sympathies and condolences to the people of Christchurch, New Zealand and all who have lost their lives during the 22nd February 2011 earthquake. Our hearts and thoughts are with you. From the men and women of the Singapore Contingent assisting with rescue and relief efforts in Christchurch".
A photograph of the earthquake damage to a building on Hereford Street. A column on the right side of the building has snapped and the side wall has pulled away from the building. USAR codes have been spray-painted on one of the windows on the bottom storey. In the foreground there is a police car.
A photograph of fire engines and other emergency vehicles parked on Worcester Street near Latimer Square.
Christchurch Cathedral, Cathedral Square.
Christchurch Cathedral, Cathedral Square.
A photograph of an army truck at the intersection of Salisbury Street and Park Terrace. The truck has been parked there to help guard the cordon. Road cones have been placed in front.
A photograph looking north along Latimer Square towards Gloucester Street. A fire truck is parked on the left side of the road.
A PDF copy of the North Canterbury News community newspaper, published on Tuesday 29 March 2011.
A PDF copy of The Star newspaper, published on Wednesday 17 August 2011.
Manchester Street looking north-ish, towards the intersection with Armagh Street.
Unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings have repeatedly been shown to perform poorly in large magnitude earthquakes, with both New Zealand and Australia having a history of past earthquakes that have resulted in fatalities due to collapsed URM buildings. A comparison is presented here of the URM building stock and the seismic vulnerability of Christchurch and Adelaide in order to demonstrate the relevance to Australian cities of observations in Christchurch resulting from the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquake swarm. It is shown that the materials, architecture and hence earthquake strength of URM buildings in both countries is comparable and that Adelaide and other cities of Australia have seismic vulnerability sufficient to cause major damage to their URM buildings should a design level earthquake occur. Such an earthquake is expected to cause major building damage, and fatalities should be expected.
A photograph looking south down Manchester towards the intersection of Lichfield Street. In the distance members of the Wellington Emergency Management Office Emergency Response Team are standing next to a police car on Lichfield Street. Behind this there is a group of earthquake-damaged buildings which have spilled rubble onto Manchester Street. An excavator is parked on top of this rubble.
A photograph of a member of the Wellington Emergency Management Office Emergency Response Team speaking to a police officer on the intersection of Manchester and St Asaph Streets. In the background is a police car.
The Christchurch region of New Zealand experienced a series of major earthquakes and aftershocks between September 2010 and June 2011 which caused severe damage to the city’s infrastructure. The performance of tilt-up precast concrete buildings was investigated and initial observations are presented here. In general, tilt-up buildings performed well during all three major earthquakes, with mostly only minor, repairable damage occurring. For the in-plane loading direction, both loadbearing and cladding panels behaved exceptionally well, with no significant damage or failure observed in panels and their connections. A limited number of connection failures occurred due to large out-of-plane panel inertia forces. In several buildings, the connections between the panel and the internal structural frame appeared to be the weakest link, lacking in both strength and ductility. This weakness in the out-of-plane load path should be prevented in future designs.
A PDF copy of The Star newspaper, published on Friday 4 November 2011.