Hastings quake damage could be $5 million

MARTY SHARPE/Dominion Post

CLEAN-UP BEGINS: Glenys Millar, Hastings' Dollars and Sense shop manager, surveys the damage caused by last night's earthquake.

GNS Science

WHERE IT STRUCK: The 5.9 quake was felt in Hawke's Bay and the surrounding region.

GNS Science

QUAKE ACTIVITY: The seismicity map shows the current earthquake (indicated by a star) in the context of ten years of 'deep' (greater than 40 km) seismicity (indicated by coloured points). The inset shows a depth cross section of the seismicity and current earthquake, projected onto the plane W-E.

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Damage claims from last night's Hastings earthquake could total about $5 million, despite initial reports of little damage.

The 5.9 magnitude quake struck at 11.25pm yesterday and was centred about 10km southwest of Hastings at a depth of 30km. A 3.5 magnitude aftershock was recorded shortly after the first earthquake.

Earthquake Commission insurance manager Lance Dixon said this afternoon that 124 claims had been already been received for things such as damage to interior walls, chimneys, toilets and hot water cylinders.

It was early days but it looked like the total claims could run to about $5 million, he said.

"When you hear a report on the radio of no damage, we normally get a couple of hundred claims. The majority of the damage is inside properties," he said.

The first rush of claims normally happened in the first three or four weeks and tapered off until the three month claim period ran out.

Mr Dixon said the damage did not appear to be as bad, and the claims appeared smaller, than after the 6.8 magnitude earthquake which struck Gisborne before Christmas.

Hastings District Council operations services manager Kevin Deacon said just seven residents rang asking for their properties to be inspected. Building inspectors found nothing but superficial and cosmetic cracking.

"The building officers had a walk through town and there is no obvious sign of damage to buildings at all," Mr Deacon said.

Alarms were set off by the quake and the Napier-Gisborne railway line was closed while it was inspected for damage.

Derek Quilliam, who lives in Clive, just north of Hastings said the quake was "pretty frightening".

"You just weren't sure how big it was going to get." He said it felt like it lasted for about 10 to 15 seconds.

The shaking woke him and his wife up "and then there was a real jolt and thump – it happened a number of times".

"It was quite alarming – you knew it was a big one."

Duffy and Finns bottle store attached to Hastings Pak'n'Save appears to have been the worst hit, losing dozens of bottles of wine and spirits.

"We'd have lost close to $10,000 I'd suggest. We had a team of people working from midnight till 3am. It was pretty easily cleaned up," shop manager Rowan Geddes said.

Manager of the Hastings Dollars and Sense store Glenys Millar arrived at work to find numerous goods off shelves, and was unlikely to open till later this morning.

"I was going to come in last night to clean up, but I thought 'no, it'll still be there tomorrow'. It's not too bad really. I thought there would be more glass on the floor," Ms Millar said.

The quake was strong enough to prompt Hastings Civil Defence to take the precaution of activating its emergency plan, but emergency services appeared surprised at a lack of response by the public.

A spokesman from the Hastings Fire Service said the quake rattled the building but not one emergency call was received.

"When it happened we thought `here we go', but there was just nothing," he said.

Police in Hastings and Napier said they had not heard of any significant damage as a result of the quake but there were reports of brief power outages in some suburbs.

- with NZPA

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hey my is kim   #21   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

hey the nite of the earthquake and i felt my bed shaking and the whole house was going i didnt know what to do i was scared and i was crying and my heart was racing i was in bed when it started my uncle told my aunty to get down stairs and then my uncle told me to get down stairs and then my aunty went next door and see if my mum was ok but she didnt hear her at the door things in my bedroom had fallen onto my floor it was scarey this was the 3 earthquake that iv felt in my life i dont like eathquakes they say that the biggest earthquake is ment to be in 210 in 2 years time

Linda Armistead   #20   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

Just happy to hear that it wasnt a serious one. My daughter and her husband live in Hastings and told me about it...Just so glad everyone is ok.

Good luck to everyone who has suffered damage to their property and personal belongings.

Linda Armistead

Alvaro Covarrubias   #19   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

Hope all is OK. I lived 4 years in Hawkes Bay and it felt like home in Chile, with minor quakes here and there. In the end you learn to live with this. But the Councils do need to stress prevention for "the Big One".

sandi   #18   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

I live in Palmy and it was a long slow shake here. my two birds woke me with their thrashing around their cage in nite fright,.

thomas   #17   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

my partner and i are both from scotland now living in havlock nth. we were both asleep at the time the quake hit but woke very quickly.with the house shaking.our nine month old rottie got the biggest scare.she spent the rest of the night in our bed there was no budging her after that.it was the noise that impressed me the most.like a train running through the house.

Adele   #16   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

I think i am the only person in the area that actually slept through it! lol :)

Sue   #15   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

Definitely the biggest quake I've felt in all my 35 years! I live in Taradale which seems to have felt it more than in Napier. Quite a bit of internal damage to my home. Broken ornaments and collectables - fortunately nothing of family importance but pretty distressing all the same. And just think - if we all thought a 5.9 was bad, imagine what the 1931 quake must have felt like! Hopefully that's our earthquake quota filled for the next couple of years!!

Emma   #14   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

Im in Wanganui and was woken by the rolling feeling of the earthquake. Very unsettling not knowing when a "big one" will roll up.

Tinkerbell   #13   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

Michelle, go to this website and fill in their survey form, I'm sure they would like to know you felt it in Hamden

http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/recent_quakes.html

Sarah   #12   05:26 pm Jan 28 2009

We moved up here in February, we've felt good earthquakes in Wellington before but the quake last night was very very scary!

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