Similar to what happened after the Christchurch earthquake, residents have began leaving the small town of Kaikoura after the massive 7.8 earthquake on the 14 November 2016.

The large magnitude of the quake made it one of the world’s three largest earthquakes in 2016, and second in magnitude to only one New Zealand earthquake since European settlement of the country, source

But despite ongoing aftershocks, and a strong aftershock overnight, the first school has reopened in Kaikoura, only to find about 20% of its students have left the district

All six schools in the district have been closed since the 7.8 magnitude shake on 14 November. However, St Joseph’s School opened at 10am today, with reduced hours, for any pupils that wanted to come back. Most other schools will re-open tomorrow, also with shorter hours.

St Joseph’s principal Mary Gray said she did not expect all 98 pupils to come back today – and in fact, not all of them were still in Kaikōura. “As far as we know, about 20-plus have left the district.”…source

While one can appreciate the psychological value of re-establishing childrens’ routines and contact with their peer groups, we do question whether they should be congregating in buildings while aftershocks continue.

Overnight there was a strong magnitude 4.5 quake that struck at 2am, at a depth of just 8km. Its epicentre was about 35km northeast of Kaikoura and alarmed many residents.

There have been 120 earthquakes in the region in the last 12 hours according to GeoNet and the state of emergency for the town has been extended for another week.

Now it looks like most business may not be eligible for earthquake relief, despite government announcements to the contrary…

School Minister to visit today

The school’s principal said

There would be no formal lessons for those who did show up today.

“We’re just going to gather and have a liturgy with the children and then we’ll practise some [earthquake] drills.” source

Education Minister Hekia Parata is due to visit Kaikōura Primary School today. One hopes the school didn’t reopen just so she could be provided with a photo op.

Damaged buildings

Six commercial premises (some around the block of Brighton Esplanade, Torquay St) and 38 homes in the town have been red-stickered.  A further 200 properties have been damaged and have restricted access. Showers and toilets in Kaikōura may be used again on a limited basis, but a boil water notice remains in place.

So far inspections of 1527 commercial and residential properties have been completed – with 273 still needing to be assessed in Kaikoura.

Of those that have been assessed, 38 homes and six commercial properties in the town have been red-stickered meaning access was forbidden, including the New Commercial Hotel and local surf shop, Kaikoura Surf.

A further 150 homes and 50 businesses have been yellow-stickered, which meant access was restricted and 1083 homes and 200 businesses had effectively been given the all-clear with a white sticker.

Red stickered buildings include the New Commercial Hotel. According to stuff.co.nz, the owner Trish Smith left Christchurch after the tragic losses of her husband and her son. The business was her retirement plan. source

Among the buildings that have been yellow stickered is the delightful art deco theatre

…and some of these premises:

Red Cross Appeal

The NZ Red Cross are still on the ground supporting people affected by the quake. They need your donations. Here’s the link: https://www.redcross.org.nz/donate/november-2016-earthquake-appeal/

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Business waits years for quake damage to neighbours to be fixed.

Nicky Arts says based on her experience in Christchurch, neighbours of damaged buildings should not assume they will be back operating anytime soon. Her family have owned a brick building on High Street in central Christchurch since the late 1960s and have been operating a family printing business from there.

They had quake-strengthened their building, but that did not help when buildings alongside were damaged in the February 2011 earthquake.

Following the earthquake the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) carried out work on one of the buildings to make it safe, and put up cordon fences, but other than that they have sat untouched for over five years… read on

A Christchurch business owner has issued a warning to anyone with property close to buildings in Kaikōura and Wellington that have been deemed unsafe because of earthquake damage.

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