The Christchurch Earthquake 2011

On the 22nd of February 2011, Christchurch was unfortunately hit. The type of disaster that occurred at Christchurch was known as an earthquake. Earthquakes are usually caused when the rock underground suddenly breaks along a crack. This then causes a sudden realease of energy that makes the ground shake from seismic waves (an elastic wave), and so when the rocks break, and earthquake occurs.

The earthquake that struck Catenbury Plains, was New Zealand’s second most populated city at the time. It occurred as it was shaken by the faults that were moving along the West city on the Canterbury Plains. It was at 12:51pm when a magnitude of 6.3, centered near Lyttelton, just 10km South-east of Christchurch’s central business district. After the next ten minutes, there was another 10 shocks of 4 or more magnitude. New Zealand sits on the boundary of two plates know as the, Indo-Asutralia plate and Pacific plate. These two plates were involved in causing the Christchurch Earthquake.

During the earthquake, 185 people were unfortunately killed and 164 people were seriously injured and there were major damages to Christchurch’s land, buildings and infrastructure. The Christchurch Earthquake caused a significant change to the natural environment, including liquefaction, lateral spread near waterways, land level changes and numerous rockfalls and landslides. The damage of this disaster costed around NZ$10 - $15 billion, and will also wipe 1.5% off there GDP (Gross domestic product) over 5 years. Some of the buildings caught fire after the disaster had occurred and a number of homes for the elderly were damaged, resulting in the evacuation of over 250 residents to other regions. There were damaged pipes that allowed sewage to enter the water, so resulting to this, most people had to boil their tap water in order to keep it clean. Beaches and waterways were polluted for months, and Christchurch’s airports were closed until their runways had been checked.

After the Christchurch earthquake, there were 16,000 properties that were severely damaged and more than 90% of properties in Greater Christchurch, suffered some damage either in September of February. The government immediately activated its National Crisis management centre, and declared its State was in emergency the day after the quake. Around 10,600 people left Christchurch after the earthquake, having its population drop to almost 11,000 people. Most victims were killed in large building collapses, where 169 people died in the central city and 16 people died in the other parts of Christchurch. Rescue crews from all around the world came to help, including Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Taiwn, Australia, and so many other countries.

Since the earthquake, Christchurch had gotten back to life as a travel destination. The city’s rebirth has been bought back up by the US$26.5 billion Christchurch rebuild movement, which they call the longest economic undertaking in New Zealand’s history. Passenger arrivals were up to 16% in summer 2015, leading up to a growth predicted at around 20% in February 2016. Electricity was restored to 75% of the city within 3 days, and the water supplies and sewerage systems took several years to restore in some areas by liquefaction (separated soil or sand is converted into a suspension).

As a result of the Christchurch Earthquake, one of the main economic casualties from this disaster has been tourism. With heavily restricted access, the quake damaged nearly all of Christchurch’s larger CBD hotels. Before the disaster had occurred, its CBD had 4,200 hotels with only having 1,500 remaining. International numbers fell from 826,052 visitors in March 2010, to 541,461 in 2012 but are still recovering. Before the quake, Christchurch had many popular attractions including, Cathedral Square, the Botanic Gardens, the Arts Centre, Christchurch centre, Canterbury Museum and many shopping destinations. Damaged buildings resulted in a 40 - 50% reduction in available beds, and only 13 of 27 hotels, and 15 of 31 backpackers remained operational. Christchurch is still recovering from its disaster, but have still made so many improvements throughout the years.

On the 19th of September 2017, Puebla was hit by an estimated magnitude of 7.1. It damaged the Mexican states of Puebla and Morelos and was also hit in the Great Mexico areas, where more than 40 buildings had collapsed. Early calculations had said that more than 30 million people would have felt the shaking, and unfortunately the earthquake had resulted in around 225 deaths and more than 6,000 injuries. It has been said that the cost of recovery had been around $2 billion, where repairing and rebuilding of homes would have had cost $550 million and the cultural sites could reach around $440 million.

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