Category: Earthquake Commission – EQC

Scientists internationally are puzzled by the 2016 Kaikōura quake that ruptured more than 17 active faults, but did not break some other active faults in the area of the earthquake.

The Earthquake Commission has funded Structural Geology Professor Andy Nicol at University of Canterbury to study the mystery, and what it could mean for forecasting future earthquakes.

“What happened in Kaikōura has really got earthquake scientists around the world talking. The Kaikōura quake is well known as one of the most complex earthquakes ever recorded. The big question is, why did some faults rupture and not others?” Professor Nicol says.

“Faults build up stress over time, and eventually rupture as an earthquake. Seen over a long, long time – maybe tens of thousands of years – there is a cycle for a fault. What we’ll be doing in our EQC research is comparing cycles for some faults that ruptured in the quake with some that didn’t.

“The team is testing the idea that the faults that ruptured were already stressed as part of their historical cycle, and were in effect ready to go. This could help us forecast the timing, location and complexity of a quake in the future.”

The map above shows the faults near Kaikōura being investigated by the team, with the blue dots where they have dug trenches so far.

EQC General Manager Resilience, Dr Hugh Cowan, says Professor Nicol’s work is an exciting area of research with practical application for planners and emergency management. 

“It will help build a more accurate picture of how faults behave and when faults might rupture.  This kind of science is painstaking but contributes to useable knowledge that can help reduce the impact of earthquakes on people and property,” says Dr Cowan.

“The Kaikōura earthquake raised a whole lot of new questions about fault behaviour and the answers are important for New Zealand and internationally.  There are a lot of people here and overseas with a keen interest in Professor Nicol’s research.”

Looking at a 10,000 year timeframe is not easy.

“It takes quite a bit of detective work,” says Professor Nicol. “We’re digging trenches across a fault line to read the history of how often the fault has ruptured, and when the last one was.

“In the trench we can see how different layers of rock have moved during past earthquakes over thousands of years.  Then we use radiocarbon dating to get an idea of when each movement occurred. Having many dates of faulted layers will help us work out the timing of prehistoric earthquakes as accurately as possible.

“We can then calculate where the fault was in its seismic cycle when the Kaikōura quake happened – and compare the faults that ruptured against those that didn’t.

“There is a team of 14 of us from the University of Canterbury, Lincoln University, GNS Science, and Geoscience in Australia involved.  What we’ve already seen in the field is that one fault, the Humps fault, has ruptured on the surface four times over the last 20,000 years.  We’ll be doing more fieldwork over the next year.

“At this stage we have no idea if our theory explains what happened in the Kaikōura earthquake.  We’ll be getting a lot of support from GNS with the analysis to see if the evidence backs up the theory.

“Our aim is to contribute new insights to seismic hazard analysis to help forecast where else might rupture when there is a sizeable earthquake,” Professor Nicol says.

EQC funds $16 million of research annually to reduce the impact of natural disaster on people and property. This project is funded through EQC’s 2018 Biennial Research Grants.

Contact Details:

Professor Andy Nicol, University of Canterbury, andy.nicol@canterbury.ac.nz  027 950 0282

EQC media contact: David Miller, media@eqc.govt.nz, 027 406 3476

North Island residents with land damage from flooding or slips in the January storm centred in the Kaiaua and Thames coast still have time to lodge a claim with the Earthquake Commission. 

Chief Customer Officer Trish Keith says people need to get their claims in by early April, as we have almost reached the three-month claim lodgement deadline that starts from the date that storm damage occurred.

“If your property suffered storm, flooding or landslip damage on 6 or 7 January, and you have fire insurance for home or contents, you can lodge an EQC claim. It is important to bear in mind that the lodgement period is still three months under the current legislation (the Government has signalled a longer claim period but this will not take effect until 2019).

Mrs Keith says that when an event such as the January storm occurs, EQC works with first response agencies such as Civil Defence and local councils to get a picture of how many damaged properties. This helps EQC work how best to support the community, including the logistics of getting EQC people into the area for property assessments.  

“We work to determine how many properties are affected, the type and extent of the damage, whether there are vulnerable customers and what further risk there is of damage to people’s sections.

“Each claim is assessed by one of our team and, depending on the type and extent of damage, can also involve geotechnical engineers visiting the property and valuation reports being carried out.

“The more information a customer can provide during the claim process, the more we can understand their requirements and whether their damage is covered under the EQC Act. Even if you don’t have all the information you might eventually need to provide, you should still lodge a claim and we can start the claim process.”

EQC’s approach is to cash settle claims for land damage and it is the homeowner’s responsibility to arrange for the necessary work to clear or repair their land.

“If urgent work needed to be carried out on your property, it’s important that you have records of any receipts to include with your EQC claim, and photos of the damage before and after repair.

“EQC will consider a claim for financial costs involved in clearing your section of debris caused by a landslip or flood and our advice is talk to us before you make any repairs and if you need to lodge a claim.”

EQC’s storm damage factsheet is available at www.eqc.govt.nz/storm-damage and the silt and debris inundation factsheet is at www.eqc.govt.nz/about-eqc/our-publications/factsheets/silt-and-debris-inundation

Claims can be lodged online at www.eqc.govt.nz/claims, via email on info@eqc.govt.nz, or by calling 0800 DAMAGE (0800 326 243).

EQC Media Contact: David Miller – 029 978 6430, media@eqc.govt.nz

Photo: Thames-Coromandel District Council

Kia ora,

In this month’s newsletter, you can find an update on how many EQC customers have received their Kaikōura earthquake settlement, what customers need to think about after they have received their EQC cash settlement and where you can find the updated answers to frequently asked questions on Kaikoura insurance claims.

How are we doing?

As at 28 February 2018, we’ve completed 93% of residential building settlements, 97% of contents settlements and 98.5% of land settlements.

So what’s left overall?

As at 28 February, of the 38,000 residential claims that resulted from the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake, we’ve got the following left to complete:

• 7%, or fewer than 2,400, of building settlements,
• Around 300 contents settlements, and
• 1.5%, or just over 50, of all land settlements.

Below is our settlement progress in the following areas as at 28 February 2018:

Region	Total number of building claims	% of building claims left to be settled
Marlborough	4,365	10%
Hurunui	2,780	10%
Kaikōura	2,146	24%
Christchurch city	7,277	Less than 5%
Wellington city	4,299	Less than 10%

So far we have paid:

• $314.7 million to insurers who manage EQC customers; and
• $35.2 million to customers who we manage (land and/or properties with open or unresolved claims for prior natural disaster damage).

EQC-managed claims

We were responsible for directly managing just over 5,400 claims. As of 28 February 2018, we’ve got just over 90 claims left to settle.

What’s next?

By the end of this month we expect less than five per cent, or 1,700 building claims left to complete.

Supporting information for EQC customers

Our customers can find a lot of useful information about what to do next following the EQC cash settlement in our new fact sheet Managing your home repair. In this fact sheet customers can read about what they need to consider when repairing their earthquake damage, who can do the work and what homeowners’ rights are. We’d really appreciate it if you could share this resource with your networks.

If you have any questions about the Kaikōura insurance claims, please check out the most common questions and answers that we’ve developed jointly with the private insurers and have recently updated. The updated frequently asked questions (FAQs) can be found on our website at www.eqc.govt.nz/Kaikoura-FAQs

If there’s something you can’t find an answer to in the Kaikōura FAQs please let us know. Also if you have any feedback on this newsletter, we’d love to hear from you. Email us at communications@eqc.govt.nz

Kia kaha,

Trish Keith
Chief Customer Officer
Customer & Claims
EQC