The Star: October 19, 2017

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Thursday October 19 2017 9
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Fire rages, homes at risk
Dalziel in US to share quake lessons
• By Bridget Rutherford
MAYOR LIANNE Dalziel will
warn two major United States
cities in danger of a mega-quake
about the importance of building
safety laws.
She is visiting Seattle and Portland
this week and next, and will
speak to their emergency management
teams about the dangers
of unreinforced masonry buildings.
They were responsible for
killing 39 people in the February
22, 2011, earthquake.
“They have exactly the same
issues as we do in New Zealand,
built in the same era,” Ms Dalziel
said.
Seattle and Portland are on the
north-west coast of the US, next
to the North Pacific Ocean.
They both sit on shallow faults
and scientists warn the rupture
of the Cascadia subduction zone
off the coast would cause a magnitude
9 megathrust earthquake.
Many say it is overdue.
Unreinforced masonry buildings
don’t have steel reinforcing.
Seattle has more than 1100, while
Portland has 500.
Both are working on proposals
requiring those buildings to
undergo seismic retrofits sooner.
Currently there are requirements
DANGER: Mayor Lianne Dalziel will speak about the February
22, 2011, earthquake in Seattle and Portland, which are at risk
of a mega-quake if the Cascadia subduction zone ruptures.
SOURCE: GEEKWIRE
to strengthen them, but only
when the owner applies to do
other building work.
“They are acutely aware of
the risks and that’s why they’ve
asked me to speak,” Ms Dalziel
said.
Last year, a New Zealand law
change was made requiring owners
of buildings with unsecured
DESTROYED: Twelve people were killed when falling masonry
fell on a bus in Colombo St during the February 22, 2011,
earthquake.
PHOTO: SIMON BAKER
or unreinforced masonry to
strengthen them within 7.5
years.
Ms Dalziel said cities needed
to learn from experiences so they
were not forgotten.
“I’m glad our law was changed
– I wish it hadn’t taken these
deaths to open our eyes to what
we learned 80 years before.”
Ms Dalziel is visiting Seattle as
part of a sister cities trip and has
tied in visits to Portland, Tacoma
and San Francisco.
She said Canterbury Civil Defence
Emergency Management
visited Seattle in 2013, where
they focused on unreinforced
masonry buildings and retrofitting.
Ann Brower also attended. She
was the only survivor when an
unreinforced Colombo St building
collapsed on a bus during the
February 22, 2011, earthquake,
killing 12.
Ms Dalziel will head to Montreal
for the ITS World Congress,
where Christchurch’s autonomous
vehicle developments will
feature, before returning for the
city council meeting on November
2.
•Mayor’s column, pg 22
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