Editorial: Another day on shaky ground

THE earth moved under our office yesterday. Hawke's Bay Today's newsroom got a healthy sway on thanks to the 6.5 magnitude earthquake that struck 30km west of Taupo at 3.36pm.
Thirty kilometres west of Taupo sounds quite close to Hawke's Bay and possibly explains why people in our office were not sure whether to laugh nervously or dive under a desk as we wobbled for quite a few seconds.
The quake was felt widely - and turned out to be the largest to strike near Taupo for a decade. It was a timely reminder (not that we particularly wanted one) that we live smack in the middle of a quake zone. Perhaps it will encourage landlords of buildings recently identified as earthquake risks to do what they can as quickly as they can to strengthen their properties.
The quake struck on the same day we reported on a visit to Hawke's Bay by the associate headmaster of Shirley Boys' High School, badly damaged in the Christchurch earthquake of February 22.
Neil Hayward was brought to the region by the Hawke's Bay Secondary Deputy and Assistant Principals Association.
Such was the interest in his presentation on the challenges faced by Shirley Boys' as a result of severe liquefaction, broken pipe systems, the need to share facilities with other schools and the continuing emotional toll, that 25 representatives from the 26 secondary schools in the region attended.
Our Secondary Deputy and Assistant Principals Association was right on the money in commenting that Hawke's Bay undoubtedly had things to learn from the experience at Shirley Boys' because Hawke's Bay was "seismically similar" to Christchurch and could experience a similar event at any time
We get regular reminders of that fact from Mother Nature. The latest being yesterday.