
From the time it opened in the 1920s, the Winter Garden ballroom was the place to go for debutante balls and big-band concerts in Christchurch. Queen Elizabeth II even dined there during her visit in 1954. But this special part of Christchurch's history is over and the Armagh Street building has been placed on the urgent demolition list because of earthquake damage. Tiny Kirk is the chairman of the Trade Union Centre which has owned the building since 1984.
A man dozes in front of the television news which reports in four cameos 'Israel defies UN!, Israel assassinates Palestinian leaders!, land seized and homes bulldozed, Israel smashes Palestinian infrastructure!, Gaza shelled!', Israel blocks aid convoys! Nine die!, Palestinians children traumatised'. In the last cameo the newsreader says 'Israeli spies in NZ - maybe!' and the man wakes up and fully alert yells 'WHAT!' Context: We only care when the news is close to home! The Southland Times reported on 20th July that an Israeli national killed in the February Christchurch Earthquake was a Mossad spy. PM John Key has confirmed that an investigation into the four Israelis involved was carried out by police and the SIS but he said no evidence was found of a link between the group and Israeli intelligence. It would seem that the group were backpackers, not Mossad agents. Colour and black and white versions available Quantity: 2 digital cartoon(s).
The 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence began with the 4 September 2010, Mw7.1 Darfield earthquake and includes up to ten events that induced liquefaction. Most notably, widespread liquefaction was induced by the Darfield and Mw6.2 Christchurch earthquakes. The combination of well-documented liquefaction response during multiple events, densely recorded ground motions for the events, and detailed subsurface characterization provides an unprecedented opportunity to add well-documented case histories to the liquefaction database. This paper presents and applies 50 high-quality cone penetration test (CPT) liquefaction case histories to evaluate three commonly used, deterministic, CPT-based simplified liquefaction evaluation procedures. While all the procedures predicted the majority of the cases correctly, the procedure proposed by Idriss and Boulanger (2008) results in the lowest error index for the case histories analyzed, thus indicating better predictions of the observed liquefaction response.
We measure the longer-term effect of a major earthquake on the local economy, using night-time light intensity measured from space, and investigate whether insurance claim payments for damaged residential property affected the local recovery process. We focus on the destructive Christchurch earthquake of 2011 as our case study. In this event more than 95% of residential housing units were covered by insurance, but insurance payments were staggered over 5 years, enabling us to identify their local impact. We find that night-time luminosity can capture the process of recovery and describe the recovery’s determinants. We also find that insurance payments contributed significantly to the process of economic recovery after the earthquake, but delayed payments were less affective and cash settlement of claims were more affective in contributing to local recovery than insurance-managed rebuilding.
The old (or is that the new) Inland Revenue Department (IRD) building on the corner of Madras and Cashel Streets in central Christchurch. Built in 2006/07 on the site of the former Farmers department store (itself badly damaged by fire), it was just a few years old when the earthquake of February 2011 struck, and subsequent quakes (all through 2...
Several people run, leap, cycle and walk the dog through an area piled high with waste material. Context: Bottle Lake Forest Park has tracks and trails which include mountain-bike tracks, horse-trekking trails and walking tracks. After being established as a temporary dump after the February 22 earthquake the government intend to use special powers to turn part of Bottle Lake Forest Park into a permanent dump. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
This winter-eve is warm, Humid the air! leafless, yet soft as spring, The tender purple spray on copse and briers! And that sweet city with her dreaming spires, She needs not June for beauty's heightening, Lovely all times she lies, lovely to-night!— From "Thyrsis: A Monody" by Matthew Arnold 1822–1888
Our programme this morning is completely devoted to the aftermath of yesterday's Christchurch earthquake. Civil Defence says rescue teams in Christchurch are still recovering people alive who have been trapped in buildings in the city overnight. The emergency department at Christchurch Hospital is extremely busy with many seriously injured people. After an emergency cabinet meeting yesterday, the Prime Minister flew to Christchurch to view the aftermath of the quake first hand. Numerous stories, some of survival, others more tragic are emerging in the aftermath of the quake.
A review of the week's news including: national earthquake memorial service announced, former defence chief to be new Governor General, Reserve Bank slashes official cash rate, Christchurch businesses say OCR cut alone won't save them, mounting concern over Christchurch World Cup prospects, government says 10,000 Christchurch homes will be demolished, alarm over possibility of mass demolition in CBD, international crews head home, petrol prices at three year high, Pike River mine receivers take control from police and boulder sold for thousands in aid of Christchurch
The family of a man killed while trying to reach his family after the February earthquake in Canterbury wants the Christchurch City Council to ensure people in Lyttelton are not cut off again.
A cycle-lane sign submerged in water. The photographer comments, "During the Christchurch earthquake this sign must have dropped off of the pedestrian bridge above and landed straight down into the Avon River".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "After the recent earthquake in Christchurch, Environment Waikato has released information that shows the Waikato people are under-prepared for a natural disaster. Adrian Pittari, University of Waikato Volcanologist".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Tracey Ormsby formerly of Blenheim has returned to her parents' home to take a break from the earthquakes in Christchurch. L-R Mia (6), Tracey and Leo (4) Ormsby".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Tracey Ormsby formerly of Blenheim has returned to her parents' home to take a break from the earthquakes in Christchurch. L-R Mia (6), Tracey and Leo (4) Ormsby".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "After the recent earthquake in Christchurch, Environment Waikato has released information that shows the Waikato people are under-prepared for a natural disaster. Adrian Pittari, University of Waikato Volcanologist".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "After the recent earthquake in Christchurch, Environment Waikato has released information that shows the Waikato people are under-prepared for a natural disaster. Adrian Pittari, University of Waikato Volcanologist".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "After the recent earthquake in Christchurch, Environment Waikato has released information that shows the Waikato people are under-prepared for a natural disaster. Adrian Pittari, University of Waikato Volcanologist".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "After the recent earthquake in Christchurch, Environment Waikato has released information that shows the Waikato people are under-prepared for a natural disaster. Adrian Pittari, University of Waikato Volcanologist".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "After the recent earthquake in Christchurch, Environment Waikato has released information that shows the Waikato people are under-prepared for a natural disaster. Adrian Pittari, University of Waikato Volcanologist".
A man representing 'EQC' (Earthquake Commission) talks to a couple outside their collapsed house. He says 'Unfortunately, this is a NORTH Canterbury collapse - so you'll only get your first $100,000 back.' Context: This refers both to the collapse of the South Canterbury Finance Company and to the problems that people are having with insurance companies in North Canterbury after the first Christchurch earthquake on September 4th 2010. Quantity: 1 digital cartoon(s).
About 700 people packed Christchurch's Cardboard Cathedral last night to hear from a panel of experts on why, four years after the big earthquake, they're still waiting for their homes to be rebuilt.
Rachel Conley's family has flown to Christchurch for the first time for the unveiling of the memorial wall. They are staying with a NZ family, whose son died along with Rachel in the earthquake.
Haeata is the first public school in Christchurch to cater for all ages, replacing three eastern suburbs schools that were closed after the earthquakes. RNZ joined more than 900 students for the first day.
A seismic engineer says many of the Christchurch buildings destroyed in Tuesday's quake weren't designed to cope with such intense forces - and it's possible damage from the September 4th earthquake went undetected.
Church bells toll and thousands stand in silence to commemorate the Christchurch earthquake. Petrol prices go up, but the quake damaged city is spared and what was found under a statue in Cathedral Square?
A national memorial service marking the Christchurch earthquake is announced. It could take more than a year for all the victims to be identified and Rocky raises 60 thousand dollars for the relief fund.
Almost 200 workers in Christchurch have lost their jobs with the closure of the Canterbury Spinners Plant - which the owners say was so badly damaged in last month's earthquake that it is beyond repair.
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Major earthquake hits Christchurch. Maling Street in Avonside. From left: Charlie Tarawa, Tamatea Briggs (12) sit under a make shift shelter while they wait for a wood fire to boil water. They are too scared to go in the house so are sleeping on the lawn".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Major earthquake hits Christchurch. Maling Street in Avonside. From left: Charlie Tarawa, and Ngarita Briggs (8) sit under a make-shift shelter while they wait for a wood fire to boil water. They are too scared to go in the house so are sleeping on the lawn".
Photograph captioned by Fairfax, "Major earthquake hits Christchurch. Maling Street in Avonside. From left: Charlie Tarawa, and Ngarita Briggs (8) sit under a make shift shelter while they wait for a wood fire to boil water. They are too scared to go in the house so are sleeping on the lawn".