KEY POINTS:
Gisborne buildings were seconds from collapse when the earthquake that struck just before Christmas stopped, engineers say.
The quake, which measured 6.8 on the Richter scale struck Gisborne on December 20, partially collapsing buildings and leaving gaping holes in roadways .
But Gisborne was lucky, the audience at a seminar presented by the East Coast branch of the Institution of Professional Engineers of New Zealand was told last night.
Ian Petty of Gisborne District Council said some buildings were seconds away from collapse as their fronts had begun to detach from the rest of the structure.
One building would definitely be demolished and nine buildings and two top floors were still considered dangerous.
The earthquake had been a wake-up call for Gisborne and "perhaps New Zealand", Mr Petty said.
The weather was good, there was little damage, and because of the time - 9.08pm - there were few people around.
Most buildings survived with little damage because of the strengthening work on them. Most damage consisted of parapets that fell from the side - rather the front - as the earthquake had moved parallel to the main street, Gladstone Rd.
Response teams assembled within a hour of the quake and, soon after, started an evaluation of buildings.
By 1pm, 23 red or "dangerous" notices and 11 yellow or "restricted" notices had been placed on buildings.
Parts of the central business district were open on Friday morning, the day after the quake, and it was completely open by 8pm on Saturday with "dangerous" buildings blocked off.
The state of emergency, declared at 1am on December 21, was lifted at 5.15pm on December 22.
George Winkler of Land Development and Exploration said it had been the "luck of the draw" that there had been no tsunami.
Opus International engineer John Wells said he had been involved in the assessment of 180 buildings between 1989 and 1994.
About 45 buildings had been demolished and rebuilt, or upgraded and strengthened.
Others had undergone similar work during renovations or after earthquakes in 1966 and 1993.
Mr Wells showed slides of several of those buildings and said they had not been damaged.
One building he showed was the restrengthened former Adairs/Farmers building which was not damaged, despite the ground floor facing Gladstone Rd and Grey Str consisting predominantly of glass.
Power, state highways, the district's wastewater system and telecommunications - with the exception of an overloaded cellular network - suffered little or no damage, he said.
Earthquake Commission insurance manager Lance Dixon said $13.5 million had been paid out to claimants.
About 1500 of 6116 claimants remained to be settled.
The commission was confident of meeting its target of paying out 80 to 85 per cent of claims by June 20, he said.
- NZPA
