7.1 Earthquake, Zero deaths

Paul took two days out from training in September to visit the Canterbury area and travelled around to observe first hand the impact of the 7.1 earthquake which struck the region in the early hours of 4th September 2010.

This quake caused widespread damage across Canterbury but like many major quakes proved to be selective, causing damage to some parts while other areas survived largely intact. Miraculously no-one was killed which may be the first time a major earthquake has struck a populated area without any loss of life. Many comparisons have been made with this years Haiti 7.0 Earthquake on 12th January where reports indicate 300,000 people died and a further 91,700 people have died as result of disease following the event.

There will be many reasons why the earthquakes resulted in such different outcome but a few points stand out.

Firstly low population density and good building construction standards:

Haiti is a poor country with lax building standards and high population density, which makes buildings more likely to crumble, according to Blakeman. "Unfortunately that's going to be a lot of the factor here," he said.

Christchurch is by comparison a city with good building standards and it was evident to me as I moved around the city that modern buildings withstood the impacts extremely well, in fact far better that I would have expected. Christchurch also has a low density and is largely low rise allowing many escape paths away from damaged structures.

Christchurch has well designed and constructed buildings. New Zealand engineers can be proud of how well our buildings withstood such a large earthquake and without a doubt this in no small way contributed to keeping the death toll at zero.

Secondly. Response agencies acted promptly and were clear about the need to protect people from the risks of aftershocks and restore services quickly:

The closure of the central Business district was a clear signal that authorities understood the risks associated with people moving into damaged buildings before sufficient safety measures were in place. Lifelines were quickly returned to levels where the majority of those affected were able to resume near normal activities. Obviously areas like sewerage systems will take time to repair however interim measures were quickly implemented.

It is clear the quality of life after an event of this magnitude is determined by what you put in place before the event. The contrast between life in Canterbury and Haiti after their respective quakes serves to make us proud to live in a country where we can afford to prepare ourselves and more so that we have done this before it was needed. Let's continue to prepare for the events that pose threats to our communities.

Much will be learnt over the months ahead but Cantabrians can be proud of how they responded and many of our clients reported that as a result of the preparations they were coping well. If you would like to know what training we might assist you with, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .