Quake ‘terror’ in Wellington apartments
Wellington’s apartment dwellers were so traumatised by the November 2016 earthquake, two-thirds evacuated their homes and some suffered ongoing mental health problems, a new survey reveals.
The disproportionate damage to inner-city apartments has prompted engineers and insurers to call for stricter earthquake design rules for apartment buildings in high-quake-risk areas.
A joint survey by GNS Science and Wellington City Council of 803 apartment dwellers found 69 per cent evacuated within an hour of the rude wake-up at 12.02am on November 14 last year, when a 7.8 magnitude quake struck near Kaiko¯ ura and violently shook the capital.
Respondents reported ‘‘complete terror’’ and unexpected trauma, which affected their ongoing mental health.
Most (77 per cent) were afraid to stay in their apartments and about half worried about the threat of a tsunami. A quarter went to higher ground and half sought refuge with family or friends.
The quake felt so violent in Bede Dwyer’s 13th floor Soho Apartment, on Taranaki St, he expected to see flattened buildings and mass casualties. ‘‘I thought it was going to collapse up there, for sure.’’
While 60 per cent of those who left home returned after 24 hours, one in 10 stayed away for a week or longer.
When Dwyer returned to his trashed apartment a couple of days after the quake, the building remained eerily empty. Front doors stood wide open where scared residents had simply walked, or run, out.
Dwyer – who was about to be made redundant from the Earthquake Commission when the quake struck – has now traded his rented city apartment for a Mt Cook bungalow: ‘‘I feel completely safe in that’’.
The November 14 quake’s frequency was perfectly tuned to shake taller buildings. While most apartment complexes remained structurally usable, photos showed high apartments suffered downed bookshelves, smashed TVs and microwaves, and shattered kitchenware.
But the shake does not appear to have dampened enthusiasm for living in the CBD. Rental and sales agents said the initial fear had faded and apartments were being snapped up as quickly as they could be built.
New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering president Peter Smith, said the disproportionate damage to Wellington’s apartments, and the growth of CBD living, meant more stringent building rules should be considered.
The current building code was only designed to ensure people could get out of high-rise buildings alive, not so they would be usable post-quake, as the condemned Statistics House showed.
‘‘It’s bad enough when you have an office building having to be emptied, but at least they can get into another open space. To try to rehouse people in apartments is a much more difficult exercise,’’ Smith said.
Damage-reducing engineering adaptations, such as building dampeners, were available but they were expensive so unlikely to be used unless required by law, he said.
Tim Grafton, of the Insurance Council, agreed building standards should look beyond life safety.
‘‘We need to be thinking about design in buildings that is going to ensure those buildings have continuity after major events.’’
About 200 Wellington body corporates have filed earthquake claims, of which about one fifth have yet to receive any settlement. Insurance premiums for some Wellington apartment buildings have also doubled.
Wellington City Council community services and emergency welfare manager, Jenny Rains, said the survey showed the quake’s impact extended far beyond a few minutes of shaking.
Responses exposed the need for pre-identified safe buildings and real-time maps of safe zones and safe evacuation routes, she said.
Landlords and EQC also needed to think about ways renters could fix and fasten furniture and loose objects, Rains said.