A video of a presentation by Professor David Johnston during the fourth plenary of the 2016 People in Disasters Conference. Johnston is a Senior Scientist at GNS Science and Director of the Joint Centre for Disaster Research in the School of Psychology at Massey University. The presentation is titled, "Understanding Immediate Human Behaviour to the 2010-2011 Canterbury Earthquake Sequence, Implications for injury prevention and risk communication".The abstract for the presentation reads as follows: The 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquake sequences have given us a unique opportunity to better understand human behaviour during and immediately after an earthquake. On 4 September 2010, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake occurred near Darfield in the Canterbury region of New Zealand. There were no deaths, but several thousand people sustained injuries and sought medical assistance. Less than 6 months later, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake occurred under Christchurch City at 12:51 p.m. on 22 February 2011. A total of 182 people were killed in the first 24 hours and over 7,000 people injured overall. To reduce earthquake casualties in future events, it is important to understand how people behaved during and immediately after the shaking, and how their behaviour exposed them to risk of death or injury. Most previous studies have relied on an analysis of medical records and/or reflective interviews and questionnaire studies. In Canterbury we were able to combine a range of methods to explore earthquake shaking behaviours and the causes of injuries. In New Zealand, the Accident Compensation Corporation (a national health payment scheme run by the government) allowed researchers to access injury data from over 9,500 people from the Darfield (4 September 2010) and Christchurch (22 February 2011 ) earthquakes. The total injury burden was analysed for demography, context of injury, causes of injury, and injury type. From the injury data inferences into human behaviour were derived. We were able to classify the injury context as direct (immediate shaking of the primary earthquake or aftershocks causing unavoidable injuries), and secondary (cause of injury after shaking ceased). A second study examined people's immediate responses to earthquakes in Christchurch New Zealand and compared responses to the 2011 earthquake in Hitachi, Japan. A further study has developed a systematic process and coding scheme to analyse earthquake video footage of human behaviour during strong earthquake shaking. From these studies a number of recommendations for injury prevention and risk communication can be made. In general, improved building codes, strengthening buildings, and securing fittings will reduce future earthquake deaths and injuries. However, the high rate of injuries incurred from undertaking an inappropriate action (e.g. moving around) during or immediately after an earthquake suggests that further education is needed to promote appropriate actions during and after earthquakes. In New Zealand - as in US and worldwide - public education efforts such as the 'Shakeout' exercise are trying to address the behavioural aspects of injury prevention.
Kao Wei, Team Leader of the Taiwan USAR team, hugs Mitchell Brown from the New Zealand USAR National Management Team. The Taiwanese team is heading home after helping out with the emergency response to the Canterbury Earthquake.
The "Lyttelton Review" newsletter for 29 October 2012, produced by the Lyttelton Harbour Information Centre.
An entry from Deb Robertson's blog for 19 November 2012 entitled, "Christchurch: Trying to make sense of living here....".
Page 5 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Tuesday 1 April 2014.
Page 3 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Thursday 8 March 2012.
A photograph of equipment from the New Zealand Fire Service Urban Search and Rescue team on display in the Canterbury Quakes exhibition at the Canterbury Museum. The equipment was used during the emergency response to the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
A photograph of volunteers from the Wellington Emergency Management Office catering for the staff at the Mainland Foundation Ballpark. The ballpark was set up by Civil Defence as an Emergency Response Centre after the 4 September 2010 earthquake.
A photograph of members of the Wellington Emergency Management Office walking down Lichfield Street towards the intersection of Madras Street. Buildings on either side of the street have been damaged by the earthquake. Plastic fences have been places around piles of rubble on the street as cordons.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Members of the Red Cross civil defence response team and South Canterbury Police have been in Christchurch helping with the earthquake clean up. Having a look at a damaged bridge on River Road near Tai Tapu is Anna Sole".
A photograph looking east down Gloucester Street from near the Manchester Street intersection. Members of the Wellington Emergency Management Office Emergency Response Team and construction workers are walking down the street. To their right is the new Press House building with many broken windows. In the foreground, the Coachman building has sustained earthquake damage to the façade. Wire fences have been placed around the building as a cordon.
A photograph of members of the Wellington Emergency Management Office Emergency Response Team examining an earthquake-damaged building on Acton Street. The closest section of the outer wall has collapsed, and the bricks and other rubble have fallen onto the pavement in front. A boat which was being stored inside has toppled over and is now sticking out of the building. Several cars, also stored inside the building, are visible.
An article from the Media Studies Journal of Aotearoa New Zealand Volume 14, Number 1. The article is titled, "Heroic Radio: a study of radio responses in the immediate aftermath of the September 2010 Earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand". It was written by Ruth Zanker.
A story submitted by Gaynor James to the QuakeStories website.
Page 5 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Saturday 30 June 2012.
Page 1 of Section A of the Christchurch edition of the Christchurch Press, published on Wednesday 7 March 2012.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Members of the Red Cross civil defence response team and South Canterbury Police have been in Christchurch helping with the earthquake clean up. Pictured from left are Andy Todd, Ken Weavers and Anna Munro. They are doing welfare checks around the Tai Tapu area".
A video of a keynote presentation by Professor Jonathan Davidson during the fifth plenary of the 2016 People in Disasters Conference. The presentation is titled, "Resilience in People".The abstract for this presentation reads as follows: Resilience is the ability to bounce back or adapt successfully in the face of change, and is present to varying degrees in everybody. For at least 50 years resilience has been a topic of study in medical research, with a marked increase occurring in the past decade. In this presentation the essential features of resilience will be defined. Among the determining or mediating factors are neurobiological pathways, genetic characteristics, temperament, and environment events, all of which will be summarized. Adversity, assets, and adjustment need to be taken into account when assessing resilience. Different approaches to measuring the construct include self-rating scales which evaluate: traits and copying, responses to stress, symptom ratings after exposure to actual adversity, behavioural measures in response to a stress, e.g. Trier Test, and biological measures in response to stress. Examples will be provided. Resilience can be a determinant of health outcome, e.g. for coronary heart disease, acute coronary syndrome, diabetes, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) positive status and successful aging. Total score and individual item levels of resilience predict response to dug and psychotherapy in post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Studies have repeatedly demonstrated that resilience is modifiable. Different treatments and interventions can increase resilience in a matter of weeks, and with an effect size larger than the effect size found for the same treatments on symptoms of illness. There are many ways to enhance resilience, ranging from 'Outward Bound' to mindfulness-based meditation/stress reduction to wellbeing therapy and antidepressant drugs. Treatments that reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety recruit resiliency processes at the same time. Examples will be given.
A photograph of members of the Wellington Emergency Management Office at a graduation ceremony in the Wellington Town Hall. The volunteers were awarded certificates of appreciation at the ceremony, for their work in the emergency response to the 22 February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch.
A photograph of members of the Wellington Emergency Management Office at a graduation ceremony in the Wellington Town Hall. The volunteers were awarded certificates of appreciation at the ceremony, for their work in the emergency response to the 22 February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch.
A member of the New Zealand Police photographed with Don Mahlke, a fire fighter from the Los Angeles County Fire Department in the United States. Mahlke travelled to New Zealand to help out with the search and rescue response to the 22 February 2011 earthquake.
A video of a presentation by Matthew Pratt during the Resilience and Response Stream of the 2016 People in Disasters Conference. The presentation is titled, "Investing in Connectedness: Building social capital to save lives and aid recovery".The abstract for this presentation reads as follows: Traditionally experts have developed plans to prepare communities for disasters. This presentation discusses the importance of relationship-building and social capital in building resilient communities that are both 'prepared' to respond to disaster events, and 'enabled' to lead their own recovery. As a member of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority's Community Resilience Team, I will present the work I undertook to catalyse community recovery. I will draw from case studies of initiatives that have built community connectedness, community capacity, and provided new opportunities for social cohesion and neighbourhood planning. I will compare three case studies that highlight how social capital can aid recovery. Investment in relationships is crucial to aid preparedness and recovery.
A video of the keynote-presentation by Dr Jeanne LeBlanc, Registered Psychologist, during the second plenary of the 2016 People in Disasters Conference. LeBlanc is a Registered Psychologist, specialising in Clinical Neuropsychology and Rehabilitation. She is the British Columbia Psychological Association (BCPA) Representative for the American Psychological Associate State, Territorial and Provincial Disaster Response Network, and has also been appointed as the Behavioural Health Liaison to the American Board of Disaster Medicine. The presentation is titled, "Machetes and Breadfruit: Medical disaster response challenges in unstable settings".The abstract for this presentation reads as follows: The January 2010 earthquake in Haiti resulted in a massive response to a setting which was already fraught with danger, causing a number of personal, logistical, and safety challenges to responding medical teams. This presentation will provide a first-person account of this experience from the perspective of a behavioural health professional, whose responsibility was both the overall emotional wellbeing of the medical responders, as well as those impacted by the quake. Unique 'lessons learned' by these response teams will be highlighted, and recommendations will be provided for responders considering deploying to future events in highly unstable areas.
Personnel from the USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) standing in Firefighters Reserve, in preparation for the two minutes of silence to honour the people who lost their lives in the 22 February 2011 earthquake. Just out of the picture is a sculpture fashioned from 5 tonnes of structural steel salvaged from the site of the World Trade Centre following their collapse on 11 September 2001 in terrorist attacks on New York City. The sculpture is now used as a tribute to firefighters in New Zealand.
Page 3 of Section A of the Christchurch Press, published on Tuesday 4 December 2012.
The Taiwanese Search and Rescue team (USAR) being farewelled at the Christchurch International Airport after helping out with the emergency response to the Canterbury Earthquake. In the centre is Rob Saunders from the New Zealand Fire Department, and on the right is Kao Wei, Team Leader of the Taiwan USAR team.
A photograph of members of the Wellington Emergency Management Office Emergency Response Team walking down Lichfield Street towards the intersection of Madras Street. There is rubble from several earthquake-damaged buildings on both sides of the road. Plastic fences and road cones have been placed on the street as cordons.
The Taiwanese Search and Rescue team being farewelled at the Christchurch International Airport after helping out with the emergency response to the Canterbury Earthquake. To the left is Rob Saunders from the New Zealand Fire Department, centre, Kao Wei Liang, Team Leader of the Taiwan USAR team, and right, the Taiwanese ambassador.
A video of the first part of an address by Dr. John Vargo from the UC branch of Resilient Organisations, at the 2012 Seismics and the City forum. The talk covers case studies from the Canterbury Earthquakes, which shed light on the ingredients of a resilient organisational culture and best business practices for enhancing resilience.
A video of the second part of an address by Dr. John Vargo from the UC branch of Resilient Organisations, at the 2012 Seismics and the City forum. The talk covers case studies from the Canterbury Earthquakes, which shed light on the ingredients of a resilient organisational culture and best business practices for enhancing resilience.