WELLINGTON – Strong aftershocks and gale-force winds buffeted a clean-up of New Zealand’s second-biggest city yesterday following the country’s most damaging earthquake in 80 years.
Christchurch and a large surrounding area of rural towns and farms on South Island were struck by the magnitude 7.1 quake early on Saturday morning, bringing down power lines, ripping up roads, smashing water and sewage pipes and wrecking building facades. There were no deaths and only a few injuries.
Initial estimates for the cost of the earthquake damage have been put at around two billion New Zealand dollars (€1.12 billion), but prime minister John Key said the earthquake commission, a state disaster insurance fund, had enough assets to cover claims.
Some of the city’s large public facilities, including major bridges, the airport, university and a sports stadium due to host games at next year’s Rugby World Cup, appeared to have suffered superficial damage. Detailed engineering studies were still under way.
A state of emergency remained in force throughout the region, and the central business district of Christchurch remained shut.
“We’ve got some tough days ahead of us and I’m not optimistic,” Christchurch mayor Bob Parker told Television New Zealand. “I’d like the central area to be open for business tomorrow, but looking at some of the buildings around here that would be less likely.”
All schools in Christchurch and some surrounding areas hit by the massive quake are to be closed until at least Wednesday, as engineers are carrying out essential structural checks.
Civil defence minister John Carter said the United Nations and the United States had offered assistance, which had been turned down as the country could cope.
Around 500 buildings were estimated to have been damaged, with more than 90 in the city centre, Christchurch city council said.
Aftershocks – the strongest measuring magnitude 5.1 – continued to send loose bricks and masonry crashing into the streets. Winds gusting up to 130km/h (80mph) were also forecast, raising fears weakened buildings would be further damaged or might collapse.
Nearly 300 people displaced from their houses were staying in emergency centres and around 1,000 had been fed by welfare groups. Power has been restored to 95 per cent of the region and water to 80 per cent, although water was still not safe to drink because of contamination from broken sewage pipes.
A formal civil defence state of emergency was still in force in the city of around 350,000, allowing authorities to control and co-ordinate recovery operations.
Mr Key, who grew up in Christchurch and has a sister living there, said after a tour of the city that the clean-up and reconstruction would be a long job.
“At least a year– it’s not a short term thing, and it’s going to take some weeks to present those issues,” he told TVNZ.
It is likely to be the most damaging quake in New Zealand since the northern city of Napier was devastated in 1931.
Christchurch and neighbouring small towns bore the full force of the quake. The quake was among the 10 strongest recorded in New Zealand, which sits between the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates and records around 14,000 earthquakes a year – of which around 20 top magnitude 5.0.
The last fatal quake was in 1968 when one measuring 7.1 killed three people on the South Island’s west coast. – (Reuters)