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New Zealand Earthquake: Christchurch demolishes 900 historic buildings
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Pastor Dale Morgan
May 13, 2011, 1:11:36 PM5/13/11
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Earthquakes In Diverse Places
New Zealand Earthquake: Christchurch demolishes 900 historic buildings
From: AAP
May 13, 2011 4:29PM
THE FACE of quake-devastated Christchurch is set to change forever with news that 900 of the city's prettiest and most historic CBD buildings will be demolished.
As families prepare for the first inquest for the 181 people killed in the February 22 earthquake, they must also face the dawning certainty that most of their town centre will be cleared and rebuilt.
Many large buildings that engineering experts thought once salvageable have been added to the black list after shifting on subsiding ground or losing masonry in the violent aftershocks.
Warwick Isaacs, deconstruction manager for the newly-formed Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA), said today that more than 1000 quake-hit buildings would be demolished.
About 900 of those were in the city's beloved CBD worst hit by the 6.3-magnitude quake that shook Christchurch three months ago.
Little work has been done on the old gothic-styled centre since that day.
Journalists who toured the city centre this week said it remained a ghost town of leaning buildings and rubble-strewn streets.
Some diggers were at work at the Canterbury Television (CTV) building, where 116 people died, but most other blocks were eerily empty.
CERA said work in the inner-city would ramp up in coming weeks, starting with the central mall, which authorities aim to reopen in time for the city's horse racing Cup and Show celebrations.
The recovery operation will cost the New Zealand government $NZ8.5 billion ($A6.36 billion).
CERA's boss Roger Sutton said it was vital a better city emerged from the rubble.
"It has got to be a city where people say it was better than it was before," he told TV3.
"I'm under no illusions it is going to be a very big, tough job and taking the people with us is going to be the big issue."
News of the demolitions came on the eve of an inquest into the deaths of nine people whose remains have not been identified.
The nine - four Chinese, one Filipino and four Christchurch residents, including a Peruvian-born woman and a Russian-born man - were all in the six-level CTV building when it pancaked down to a single storey.
Chief coroner Judge Neil MacLean said the inquest, to be held in Christchurch from May 16, would help grieving families get the closure they needed.
"We've come to a point where some families are facing a worst case scenario where no trace will be found of their loved ones, so we need to find a way forward for them," Judge MacLean said last week.
Judge MacLean said the three-day inquest was likely to be the first of many to address the quake deaths and dispel some of the "unfortunate rumours" surrounding some incidents.
The collection of unidentified remains is expected to be buried in a mass grave at a later date.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/christchurch-cbd-to-lose-900-buildings/story-e6frfku0-1226055491410#ixzz1MFlZ7OEA
New Zealand Earthquake: Christchurch demolishes 900 historic buildings
From: AAP
May 13, 2011 4:29PM
THE FACE of quake-devastated Christchurch is set to change forever with news that 900 of the city's prettiest and most historic CBD buildings will be demolished.
As families prepare for the first inquest for the 181 people killed in the February 22 earthquake, they must also face the dawning certainty that most of their town centre will be cleared and rebuilt.
Many large buildings that engineering experts thought once salvageable have been added to the black list after shifting on subsiding ground or losing masonry in the violent aftershocks.
Warwick Isaacs, deconstruction manager for the newly-formed Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA), said today that more than 1000 quake-hit buildings would be demolished.
About 900 of those were in the city's beloved CBD worst hit by the 6.3-magnitude quake that shook Christchurch three months ago.
Little work has been done on the old gothic-styled centre since that day.
Journalists who toured the city centre this week said it remained a ghost town of leaning buildings and rubble-strewn streets.
Some diggers were at work at the Canterbury Television (CTV) building, where 116 people died, but most other blocks were eerily empty.
CERA said work in the inner-city would ramp up in coming weeks, starting with the central mall, which authorities aim to reopen in time for the city's horse racing Cup and Show celebrations.
The recovery operation will cost the New Zealand government $NZ8.5 billion ($A6.36 billion).
CERA's boss Roger Sutton said it was vital a better city emerged from the rubble.
"It has got to be a city where people say it was better than it was before," he told TV3.
"I'm under no illusions it is going to be a very big, tough job and taking the people with us is going to be the big issue."
News of the demolitions came on the eve of an inquest into the deaths of nine people whose remains have not been identified.
The nine - four Chinese, one Filipino and four Christchurch residents, including a Peruvian-born woman and a Russian-born man - were all in the six-level CTV building when it pancaked down to a single storey.
Chief coroner Judge Neil MacLean said the inquest, to be held in Christchurch from May 16, would help grieving families get the closure they needed.
"We've come to a point where some families are facing a worst case scenario where no trace will be found of their loved ones, so we need to find a way forward for them," Judge MacLean said last week.
Judge MacLean said the three-day inquest was likely to be the first of many to address the quake deaths and dispel some of the "unfortunate rumours" surrounding some incidents.
The collection of unidentified remains is expected to be buried in a mass grave at a later date.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/christchurch-cbd-to-lose-900-buildings/story-e6frfku0-1226055491410#ixzz1MFlZ7OEA
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