Wairarapa residents rated the quake as six on the Mercalli scale - defined as "felt by all, people and animals alarmed, many run outside. Difficulty experienced in walking steadily".
The snapshot of the region's quake history also shows the Masterton District Council has identified 191 buildings as potentially earthquake-prone.
A further 40 buildings were confirmed as prone.
South Wairarapa District Council Civil Defence manager Mark Allingham said the council was as prepared as it could be for an emergency.
"Obviously you can't prepare for every single event, but it's about having a structure in place."
There were good Civil Defence programmes in local schools teaching preparedness, and being a rural community, the people of Wairarapa were generally more resilient, Mr Allingham said.
"I have a chest freezer in our shed which has got a couple of sheep and a whole cow in it. The Christchurch quakes made people far more aware."
Before 2010, there was an average of 3231 claims nationwide made to the EQC annually.
About 1200 earthquakes were felt in New Zealand last year.
While the tremors did not cause any serious damage or tsunamis, more than 50,000 claims were made to the EQC.
The most common reasons the Commission declined claims during the last two years were: The claim was a duplicate (30,300), and no record of an earthquake occurring (9964). Other claims were declined for being below the $200 excess (2996), and related to pre-existing damage (1038).
