LauraNotts

Yeah, I think for me it's more knowing that most of the city centre is on re-claimed land and looking at all those beautiful brick buildings. Coming from Christchurch and even having missed the big ones I think I'm naturally more 'what is above my headish' than I was when I lived in unshakeable mother England.

Stormer999

Might be unshakeable England but I was in the 5.4 that hit the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales....

LauraNotts

I'm gonna be nosey now - what was that like? I actually did feel a couple in England but they weren't anything like these here.

Parnell

Well done for previous post on the scales that should be informative for OP.


Just to add on Wellington is the sea and what happened in Japan.


When in Wellington always be aware of your physical route to higher ground.

Pulaski

I felt a 5.8 in 2011, but so did several tens of millions of other people on the east coast of the US. It made the building floors shake (in a modern, low-rise, steel-framed building), and everybody looked up, and at first felt like the vibrations from a passing HGV.

Despite the epicenter being not far from Washington DC, and being felt in a dozen states and part of Canada, it caused no deaths, and (only) an estimated $300 million of damage, which considering the number of people who felt it, is a pretty trivial amount. I presume it would mostly be cracking and damage to plasterboard, which makes up the interior wall surfaces of the vast majority of homes, and offices, in the US, but isn't at all robust when the timber or steel frame it is screwed or nailed to, flexes.

Stormer999

More scary than anything I have encountered in Chch but I was in a static caravan that twisted and dumped all of it's crockery on the floor. Liverpool had the most of the damage with chimney stacks dropping. The after shocks were nearly as bad.

This one was bad...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Kent_earthquake

BEVS

Static caravan in Wales?
Surely not.

Stormer999

Please explain

LauraNotts

I guess for me I can deal with them okay. It's just that fear when they're big that it's THE ONE.

tinalouie

Thank you for your honest experiences ... i would rather know so I can prepare and adapt, dont want it to put me off completely. Do they insure homes against earthquake damage or is it too expensive ?

LauraNotts

Tina that's a whole other box of frogs. From what I understand in Christchurch yes they do insure homes and there is something called the Earthquake Commission (EQC) who are responsible for overseeing the recovery of areas hit by damaging quakes. However the process of fixing them has dragged on with many people waiting years - particularly for complex cases. Also if you don't have insurance you're stuffed which is why the market is flooded with 'As is Where is' houses.

tinalouie

So would it be better to buy a new build house with insurance from the start then?

LauraNotts

There are lots of benefits to buying new build houses in terms of obviously less immediate upkeep, personal choice in fittings etc and better insulation standards but there is no reason why an old house with valid insurance is worse off than a new house with valid insurance if either are damaged in a quake. I guess just do your due diligence before you purchase and you're good.

MrsFychan

you cannot buy a house without insurance.
When a large earthquake hit a couple of years ago, all new insurance policies where stopped for a few weeks which nearly saw people lose out on houses they had gone unconditional on, which would of opened up a huge box of frogs.

BEVS

What?

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