New Zealand says one-third of quake city faces demolition
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, Feb 26, AFP
New Zealand said Saturday one-third of Christchurch’s city centre
faces demolition after an earthquake killed at least 123, and warned it
may be unable to host the Rugby World Cup.
Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee urged the stricken city
to be “realistic” about holding World Cup matches in September and
October after the 6.3-magnitude quake caused widespread damage,
including to the rugby stadium.
“To lose the Rugby World Cup from Christchurch would be a massive
blow,” Brownlee told TVNZ. “I don’t want to see it happen but we’ve got
to be realistic about the prospect.”Rugby-mad Christchurch, New
Zealand’s second-largest city, is one of the main venues for the
seven-week competition, and is slated to hold two quarter-finals on
October 8 and 9.
But Tuesday’s quake reduced much of the city centre and some suburbs
into ruins. Although Stadium Christchurch has only minor damage, the
pitch has been hit by liquifaction, when soil becomes a quagmire due to
the ground’s shaking.
Stadium officials also reported serious damage around the venue,
which is just two kilometres (just over a mile) from the rubble-strewn
city centre -- where Christchurch’s biggest hotel is tottering and in
danger of collapse.On Saturday, engineers said as much as a third of the
central district, where office buildings folded like packs of cards and
entire streets lost their shop frontages, may be demolished and rebuilt.
“We’ve collected some data over the past couple of days and it’s
looking like about one-third of the buildings (would be condemned),”
Auckland University structural engineer Jason Ingham told TVNZ.“We will
have to prune this city and we’ll have to prune it hard,” city mayor Bob
Parker told Sky News. “Entire blocks are going to have to go.”
Earthquake minister Brownlee said the centre may be closed for months.
Police raised the creeping death toll to 123 with more than 200
missing. Officials said the toll could rise sharply later, although some
of the dead are likely to be included among those still unaccounted for.
Prime Minister John Key, who was raised in Christchurch, was due to
visit families of the dead or missing Saturday on his latest trip to the
disaster zone.
Power has now been restored to most of the city but many of its
390,000 residents are without water and relying on supplies brought by
tanker.Officials said more than 62,000 homes have no water supplies and
100,000 properties are without sewerage, while 800 portable toilets will
soon be in place to help ward off the threat of disease.
Despite a major international search operation involving some 700
specialist personnel, no signs of life have been detected in the quake
wreckage since Wednesday, when the last of about 70 survivors was
rescued.
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