Wellington aftershock

Strong quake hits Wellington

Wellington has been shaken by a 4.9 magnitude earthquake, one of the largest to hit since the large 6.5 magnitude tremor that hit on July 21.

NZCity,

1 August 2013

A 4.9 magnitude earthquake has rocked central New Zealand, shaking buildings in the capital.

It's the largest tremor to hit the area since a 5.4 magnitude shook the area at 1am on Monday.

Hundreds of aftershocks have rolled in since a 6.5 magnitude earthquake hit the Cook Strait on July 21, damaging Wellington buildings and leaving about 25 people with minor injuries.

Thursday's 4.9 magnitude tremor, which GeoNet classified as strong, hit 30km east of Seddon at a depth of 16km at 11.10am.

About 2000 people have registered on the GeoNet website that they felt the shaking.

The tremor was followed by a 4.2 magnitude earthquake 45 minutes later.

There have been more than 2000 tremors since the earthquakes started on July 19.

Storm, slips and quakes prove costly for capital

The cost to Wellington from the recent spate of natural disasters is continuing to mount, with the bill for June's storm alone reaching $4 million.

Stuff,

1 August 2013

Wellington City Council was told today to hope things come in threes when councillors were briefed on quake and storm recovery, and what's happening at the Priscilla Cres slip site in Kingston.

But with aftershocks from the Cook Strait quake continuing to rattle the capital the bills are sure to rise with the full cost of the three events likely to remain unknown for months, acting emergency controller Neville Brown said.

The update came as seven buildings remain closed to the public following the Sunday July 21 earthquake.

Wellington's run of bad luck began on June 1 when a slip in Kingston's Priscilla Cres forced 35 people from their homes. At least two homes remain unoccupied.

That was followed on June 20 when the strongest storm since the Wahine lashed the capital, and then the run of quakes a month later, with the biggest reaching magnitude 6.5.

Aftershocks continued to rattle Wellington today, with the biggest at 4.9 striking just after 11am. There were also two measuring 4.4 - one at 5.46am and another at 11.55am.

The series of events within such a short time frame was "unprecedented", Brown said.

"I don't think there are many records that could parallel it."

The biggest cost to council at this stage came from the storm, with the bill reaching about $4m, he said.

Of that, about $2.5m was to repair the roads and seawalls around the harbour and South Coast, and to repair slips. About $1m was to clear fallen trees.

"The damage to the seawalls has been much more extensive than we expected."

However, the bill would almost certainly grow, and the clean-up could take more than a year, as many fallen trees were in hard to reach places, he said.

"We are still in clean-up mode ... as we uncover more information about the south coast we may uncover other fix-up jobs."

Councillors were also updated on the houses affected by the Kingston slip, four of which had their rates re-evaluated and lowered due to damage.

The Earthquake Commission had completed a report into the potential cause of the slip, which was being sent to home-owners, but the council was yet to see it, councillors were told.

EQC national operations manager Barry Searle said the commission "has received reports in respect of some of the properties and while the exact cause is still unclear it is likely that heavy rainfall in the previous weeks contributed to the slips".

Meanwhile, the city is still recovering from the ongoing quake swarm coming from the Cook Strait.

EQC has so far received 3128 claims from the quakes, of which about 70 per cent are from the North Island.

Brown said it was too early to quote a cost to rate payers, but the majority of repairs would be to footpaths and kerbs, with a bill of about $500,000 looking likely.

Seven city building's remain closed, including the council's portico between the library and council office building.

The portico was water logged from burst sprinklers, and a "seismic sliding mechanism" had broken.

The council would bring forward demolition plans for the structure.

"We don't want to be in a position where we subject it to another 6.5 earthquake, it might not survive as well as it has," Brown said.

But people are allowed to walk underneath it again.

"We wouldn't have opened it if it wasn't safe, and that has been on engineering advice."

Other closed buildings are: the James Smith's and Reading car parks, the Public Trust Building, 188 Lambton Quay, the Greater Wellington regional council building on Wakefield St, and the BNZ Building.