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As might be expected, since the Canterbury earthquake, other cities in NZ that are vulnerable to earthquakes have reviewed their seismic safety efforts. For the capital city of Wellington, the concerns are considerable. Capital shaky over quake preparedness . TVNZ. Oct. 4th.

A report has found shortcomings in the preparedness of seven of the 10 emergency operations  centres in New Zealand’s quake-prone capital. The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management assessed the effects of a big earthquake hitting Wellington and the audit questions whether some of the buildings could withstand a major shake. The report says the Wellington region is a geologically dynamic part of New Zealand and movement of the Wellington Fault could be expected to result in a quake of about magnitude 7.5. It says the risk to people is dependent on the timing, scale, location and nature of the event but an earthquake of similar magnitude to that in Christchurch would likely result in fatalities and significantly more injuries if it occurred in Wellington.

Note that in an earlier post about the recent NZ quote, I mentioned a 1995 indepth study of  Wellington After the ‘Quake.

For an update on the Canterbury quake, from the same news source, see: Quake: Unanswered questions one month on