Porirua City Council has several staff rostered on to help at the NCMC over the next few days, and our building inspectors and drainage teams, and Red Cross team are all on standby, ready to help.
Our thoughts go out to those affected.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
National Advisory - Earthquake - 6.3 quake in Christchurch
National Advisory - Earthquake
No: 01
Issued at 13:25 hours on 22/02/2011
Issued by the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management (MCDEM).
Earthquake Parameters:
Location: 10 km South-East of Christchurch
NZ origin time: NZDT 12:51 2011 Feb 22
Co-ordinates: (Latitude, Longitude) 43.60S, 172.71E
Depth: (Focal depth) 5km
Magnitude: (Richter Magnitude) 6.3The above magnitude is provisional and may be adjusted as more seismic data becomes available.
Damage Assessment:The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management (MCDEM) is assessing information with the assistance of scientific advisors and Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Groups.
NCMC status: The National Crisis Management Centre is being activated.
Advice for the public. People in the affected area should:
· Expect aftershocks. Each time one is felt, drop, cover, and hold on.
· Check yourself first for injuries and get first aid if necessary before helping injured or trapped persons.
· Assess your home or workplace for damage. If the building appears unsafe get everyone out. Use the stairs, not an elevator and when outside, watch out for fallen power lines or broken gas lines. Stay out of damaged areas.
· Look for and extinguish small fires if it is safe to do so. Fire is a significant hazard following earthquakes.
· Listen to the radio for updated emergency information and instructions.
· Do not overload phone lines with non-emergency calls.
· Help people who require special assistance - infants, elderly people, those without transportation, families who may need additional help, people with disabilities, and the people who care for them.
Detailed safety advice will come from local authorities and emergency services in the area. People should act on it promptly.
MCDEM, local civil defence authorities and scientific advisors are closely monitoring the situation.This advisory has been issued to all local civil defence authorities, emergency services, other agencies and media.
Next steps: Further updates will be issued as information becomes available. This will be the only message issued using the National Warning System. Further updates will be communicated using normal means, including media releases.
Issued by: Message authorised by the National Controller, Civil Defence Emergency Management.
End of Message
No: 01
Issued at 13:25 hours on 22/02/2011
Issued by the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management (MCDEM).
Earthquake Parameters:
Location: 10 km South-East of Christchurch
NZ origin time: NZDT 12:51 2011 Feb 22
Co-ordinates: (Latitude, Longitude) 43.60S, 172.71E
Depth: (Focal depth) 5km
Magnitude: (Richter Magnitude) 6.3The above magnitude is provisional and may be adjusted as more seismic data becomes available.
Damage Assessment:The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management (MCDEM) is assessing information with the assistance of scientific advisors and Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Groups.
NCMC status: The National Crisis Management Centre is being activated.
Advice for the public. People in the affected area should:
· Expect aftershocks. Each time one is felt, drop, cover, and hold on.
· Check yourself first for injuries and get first aid if necessary before helping injured or trapped persons.
· Assess your home or workplace for damage. If the building appears unsafe get everyone out. Use the stairs, not an elevator and when outside, watch out for fallen power lines or broken gas lines. Stay out of damaged areas.
· Look for and extinguish small fires if it is safe to do so. Fire is a significant hazard following earthquakes.
· Listen to the radio for updated emergency information and instructions.
· Do not overload phone lines with non-emergency calls.
· Help people who require special assistance - infants, elderly people, those without transportation, families who may need additional help, people with disabilities, and the people who care for them.
Detailed safety advice will come from local authorities and emergency services in the area. People should act on it promptly.
MCDEM, local civil defence authorities and scientific advisors are closely monitoring the situation.This advisory has been issued to all local civil defence authorities, emergency services, other agencies and media.
Next steps: Further updates will be issued as information becomes available. This will be the only message issued using the National Warning System. Further updates will be communicated using normal means, including media releases.
Issued by: Message authorised by the National Controller, Civil Defence Emergency Management.
End of Message
Monday, February 21, 2011
All shook up?
Did anyone feel the earthquakes over the weekend?
There was a 3.9 at 5:51pm on Friday centred 25km down, and 20km south-west of Wellington - http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/3466704g.html
And a 3.8 just 10km north of Porirua, centred 40km down - http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/3467053g.html
I missed them both.
There was a 3.9 at 5:51pm on Friday centred 25km down, and 20km south-west of Wellington - http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/3466704g.html
And a 3.8 just 10km north of Porirua, centred 40km down - http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/3467053g.html
I missed them both.
Friday, February 18, 2011
When does it stop?
I have a habit of reading the comments that people post on Stuff articles. Whenever there's an article about yet another aftershock for Canterbury someone inevitably asks the question - when do they stop being aftershocks and start being new earthquakes?
The simple answer is, all aftershocks are earthquakes, but not all earthquakes are aftershocks.
An earthquake is caused by a sudden slip along a faultline or tectonic plate boundary that releases stress which has built up.
Imagine trying to push a chair with rubber feet around on the lino. You start pushing on the chair with a constant but small amount of pressure - this is you moving the chair like a tectonic plate. The rubber is providing a fair bit of resistance (like the plates do between each other), so the chair doesn't budge for a while, but then suddenly skids forward a bit (that's your earthquake) and then kind of stutters to a halt as the rubber catches, lets go, catches & lets go again (those are your aftershocks) and then finally stops as you aren't applying the same amount of pressure until you catch up to your chair and start applying the pressure again.
The techtonic plates are being pushed around by pretty constant pressure, but at the boundaries they can get a bit stuck on snags on the other plates. When the pressure gets high enough to overcome the friction, it'll give in an earthquake, and then stutter to a halt once the pressure has all been released. In some places you can get slow earthquakes where there don't seem to be many snags, so the plates slide on past each other without much more than little tremors, or you can get bits that have been all locked up for thousands of years, and then suddenly let go with a hell of a bang.
Canterbury has had the big slip, but hasn't quite finished its movement yet. It's still trying to iron out all the wrinkles, and that may take years to be complete - afterall, it hadn't gone in 16000? years.
Here's the seismograph drum record from Canterbury this morning. As you can see, there are still a lot of snags letting go.
Here's Wellington's for comparison.
The simple answer is, all aftershocks are earthquakes, but not all earthquakes are aftershocks.
An earthquake is caused by a sudden slip along a faultline or tectonic plate boundary that releases stress which has built up.
Imagine trying to push a chair with rubber feet around on the lino. You start pushing on the chair with a constant but small amount of pressure - this is you moving the chair like a tectonic plate. The rubber is providing a fair bit of resistance (like the plates do between each other), so the chair doesn't budge for a while, but then suddenly skids forward a bit (that's your earthquake) and then kind of stutters to a halt as the rubber catches, lets go, catches & lets go again (those are your aftershocks) and then finally stops as you aren't applying the same amount of pressure until you catch up to your chair and start applying the pressure again.
The techtonic plates are being pushed around by pretty constant pressure, but at the boundaries they can get a bit stuck on snags on the other plates. When the pressure gets high enough to overcome the friction, it'll give in an earthquake, and then stutter to a halt once the pressure has all been released. In some places you can get slow earthquakes where there don't seem to be many snags, so the plates slide on past each other without much more than little tremors, or you can get bits that have been all locked up for thousands of years, and then suddenly let go with a hell of a bang.
Canterbury has had the big slip, but hasn't quite finished its movement yet. It's still trying to iron out all the wrinkles, and that may take years to be complete - afterall, it hadn't gone in 16000? years.
Here's the seismograph drum record from Canterbury this morning. As you can see, there are still a lot of snags letting go.
Here's Wellington's for comparison.
Once Canterbury's drum records go back to looking like ours, then maybe you can stop calling them aftershocks, but that might not be for years. Chile is still having some quite large aftershocks from last year's big quake.
Friday, February 11, 2011
A thin blue line
So the residents of Island Bay have been working alongside Wellington City Council’s Emergency Management Office (WEMO) and GNS Science to help prepare the community for a tsunami - and discussions have resulted in a "blue line safe zone" concept.
This will see a series of blue lines painted across some streets throughout the suburb marking the tsunami safety zone. Once you cross the line and move uphill you are likely to be safe from tsunami.
“The line indicates where the safety zone would start if there was a tsunami generated by a large local earthquake,” Emergency Preparedness Manager, Fred Mecoy says.
“The idea behind it was to clearly mark out a safe zone and to create something that would encourage word-of-mouth interest in the community and ongoing education about tsunamis.”
An article on Stuff shows what they look like - http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4646350/Tsunami-line-divides-Island-Bay
So what do you think? Would it be a good idea for Porirua? We'd love your feedback.
This will see a series of blue lines painted across some streets throughout the suburb marking the tsunami safety zone. Once you cross the line and move uphill you are likely to be safe from tsunami.
“The line indicates where the safety zone would start if there was a tsunami generated by a large local earthquake,” Emergency Preparedness Manager, Fred Mecoy says.
“The idea behind it was to clearly mark out a safe zone and to create something that would encourage word-of-mouth interest in the community and ongoing education about tsunamis.”
An article on Stuff shows what they look like - http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4646350/Tsunami-line-divides-Island-Bay
So what do you think? Would it be a good idea for Porirua? We'd love your feedback.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
A soggy weekend
While Poriua had a few centimetres of nice drenching rain to soak into the soil over the weekend, other parts of the North Island had a bit more than they really wanted, with up to 30cm (that's a whole foot!) of rain falling over the weekend.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4576045/Mop-up-begins-after-deluge - check out some of the photos - especially some of the ones from Auckland, where an extra high tide and heavy rain brought the ocean right to peoples' doorsteps
I had friends evacuated from their campsite in Taupo, and then they had drive the long way home again as the Desert Road was forced to close.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/national/4572485/Wet-wet-wet-but-worst-weather-over
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4576045/Mop-up-begins-after-deluge - check out some of the photos - especially some of the ones from Auckland, where an extra high tide and heavy rain brought the ocean right to peoples' doorsteps
I had friends evacuated from their campsite in Taupo, and then they had drive the long way home again as the Desert Road was forced to close.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/national/4572485/Wet-wet-wet-but-worst-weather-over
Monday, January 17, 2011
Going troppo
It's been pretty windy lately, with the winds fanning the flames at several large scrub fires around the region.
And the weather is about to take another turn for the worse with the expected impact of the remains of Tropical Cyclone Vania, and Tropical Cyclone Zelia. They won't officially be cyclones by the time they get to us, but they are forecast to bring very humid conditions and a period of heavy rain and north to northwest gales over northern and central New Zealand from mid/late Tuesday morning until Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.
Here we can expect 70-100mm of rain in the 18 hours from 10am on Tuesday, and 150mm up in the Tararuas.
It should reduce the fire danger a bit, but you have to worry about rapidly rising rivers & streams, and surface flooding instead.
And the wind may be gusting to 120km/h, so make sure you secure loose objects around your home (rubbish bins, trampolines etc), and take care while driving tomorrow night.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/4548138/Cyclone-still-tracking-towards-New-Zealand
And the weather is about to take another turn for the worse with the expected impact of the remains of Tropical Cyclone Vania, and Tropical Cyclone Zelia. They won't officially be cyclones by the time they get to us, but they are forecast to bring very humid conditions and a period of heavy rain and north to northwest gales over northern and central New Zealand from mid/late Tuesday morning until Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.
Here we can expect 70-100mm of rain in the 18 hours from 10am on Tuesday, and 150mm up in the Tararuas.
It should reduce the fire danger a bit, but you have to worry about rapidly rising rivers & streams, and surface flooding instead.
And the wind may be gusting to 120km/h, so make sure you secure loose objects around your home (rubbish bins, trampolines etc), and take care while driving tomorrow night.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/4548138/Cyclone-still-tracking-towards-New-Zealand
Friday, January 14, 2011
Bad weather for the weekend
The MetService has issued a Severe Weather Watch for the Wellington & Wairarapa areas for strong northwest winds from late Saturday through to Sunday afternoon, and there's likely to be a bit of rain associated with that.
Keep an eye on the weather forecasts and plan accordingly.
Keep an eye on the weather forecasts and plan accordingly.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Go team!
A number of Kiwi volunteers are over in Australia helping out with the floods, including several from Hutt City, a couple from Wellington, and a colleague from HVEMO. They should bring back some useful information from their experiences, though we tend not to have to deal with snakes in our floodwaters around here!
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4525570/Kiwi-team-in-Queensland-flood-zone
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4525570/Kiwi-team-in-Queensland-flood-zone
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Busy holidays
The holiday period had a bit going on emergency-wise!
Boxing Day started early with a 3am wake-up call from the National Warning System, letting us know that the quake in in Vanuatu wasn't going to cause us any tsunami problems (I hope everyone in Vanatu came out of it all right!)
Later that day Canterbury had a rather rude series of aftershocks which caused more damage to properties, and gave some people a hell of a fright while they were making the most of the Boxing Day sales.
A couple of days later things got a bit breezy... The Rimutaka Hill road was closed for several hours as winds gusted over 150km/h, and Wellington recorded 172km/hr! There were roofs lifting, trees & power lines down, and more than a couple of probably brand-new trampolines being blown into buildings.
Much of the rest of the country received more rainfall than they really wanted in such a short time, with many rivers flooding - http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/4500399/Flooding-worst-in-150-years, and campers being forced to abandon their tents to rising waters.
Don't forget to ask for help if you need it - we generally don't know if something is wrong unless someone actually tells us! http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/4505316/No-call-to-Civil-Defence. Ring 111, ring your council, let people know when there is a problem!
Boxing Day started early with a 3am wake-up call from the National Warning System, letting us know that the quake in in Vanuatu wasn't going to cause us any tsunami problems (I hope everyone in Vanatu came out of it all right!)
Later that day Canterbury had a rather rude series of aftershocks which caused more damage to properties, and gave some people a hell of a fright while they were making the most of the Boxing Day sales.
A couple of days later things got a bit breezy... The Rimutaka Hill road was closed for several hours as winds gusted over 150km/h, and Wellington recorded 172km/hr! There were roofs lifting, trees & power lines down, and more than a couple of probably brand-new trampolines being blown into buildings.
Much of the rest of the country received more rainfall than they really wanted in such a short time, with many rivers flooding - http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/4500399/Flooding-worst-in-150-years, and campers being forced to abandon their tents to rising waters.
Don't forget to ask for help if you need it - we generally don't know if something is wrong unless someone actually tells us! http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/4505316/No-call-to-Civil-Defence. Ring 111, ring your council, let people know when there is a problem!
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