A predictable lesson for building owners

Nelson Mail editorial, September 8, 2010


The immediate aftermath of a disaster is hardly the time when anybody wants to hear a "told you so" message, but the early lessons to be taken from the Canterbury earthquake are too severe to ignore - and exactly what we have long been warned of. One of the most glaring aspects of the quake's toll is that it has been hardest on exactly those buildings which everybody knew would be most prone to serious damage in a significant shake: old, unstrengthened masonry structures, ranging from house chimneys to large commercial buildings. They were, in other words, disasters waiting to happen and a legacy of the failure of building owners and local authorities to be adequately prepared.
It could, and probably should, be considered a travesty that New Zealand as a whole still has so many old brick and stone buildings which would not withstand even a moderately-serious quake. In Nelson alone, the city council estimates there are 240 buildings and structures which are potentially "earthquake-prone" and may need strengthening - but with "very few" getting the necessary attention to date.
Nelson MP Nick Smith hinted at the seeming laxity with which the issue has been regarded with his comments this week about the reluctance some building owners have shown to their obligations. Obviously there is no way any community could bring all such buildings up to contemporary standards overnight, especially given that those standards have been something of a moveable feast in recent decades. But the deadline of decades set by some local bodies to allow building owners to get up to code would look ridiculous if a significant earthquake strikes in the meantime.
It may be that the Government will need to consider a system of incentives to encourage speedier progress, but the sight of hundreds of destroyed and badly-damaged old brick and stone buildings in Christchurch should have provided all the evidence needed that dragging heels and hoping it will never happen is a fool's course.
As has been repeatedly pointed out since Saturday, hundreds or thousands could have been killed and badly hurt if the Christchurch quake had happened during the height of a working day. If that had been the case, building owners would have surely faced some of the responsibility. Even without a human toll, the destruction of so many pieces of the Christchurch cityscape is a deeply upsetting and traumatic element of the whole tragedy, one which no town or city should now be prepared to countenance.
The Nelson City Council's own building manager has acknowledged that events down in Christchurch are a "wake-up call". A team of her staff are in that city helping with the recovery efforts. They will surely bring back to Nelson some newfound urgency to share with the community at large - and particularly with building owners - about the need to make haste on the most basic of precautions: ensuring that the built environment and its inhabitants have a fair chance of surviving a significant tremor, if and when it is this city's turn to face such disaster. After all, it is more than ever the case that nobody can say they haven't been warned.