Natural Hazards In 2007: Busy And Expensive
NEWS RELEASE, 2 May 2008
Natural Hazards In
2007: Busy And Expensive
2007 was one of the most costly years on record for natural hazards, according to the annual review of natural hazards from the National Hazards Centre.
Insurance Council figures reported in the review show total disaster-related insurance payouts for 2007 are likely to exceed those for 2004, the year of the Manawatu floods. This would make 2007 the second most expensive year for insurance industry natural hazard payouts since 1968, the year of the Wahine storm.
Weather-related loss events totalled $96.25 million last year. In addition, the costs of the magnitude 6.8 Gisborne earthquake in December are approaching $50 million and still being counted.
The review shows the Earthquake Commission received 6519 claims for natural disaster damage in 2007 – three times as many as the previous year – and the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management (MCDEM) recorded 900 weather and geological events or emergencies.
The Natural Hazards
Centre is a joint undertaking by NIWA and GNS Science. Its
annual review includes:
* Hazards summaries, with
graphics and analysis of key events
* Reports from the
Insurance Council and Earthquake Commission
* Hazard
planning reports from MCDEM and Ministry for the
Environment
* Research summaries from NIWA and GNS
Science on weather-related hazards forecasting, geological
hazards and society, and a regional riskscape model.
A short selection of notable hazard events from 2007 is attached: full details are available in the 30-page report, Natural Hazards 2007.
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The report is available at: www.naturalhazards.net.nz
The Natural Hazards Centre was established in 2002 by government-owned research and consultancy organisations NIWA and GNS Science. Its role is to provide New Zealanders with a single point of contact for the latest research, resources, and scientific expertise. Its strength lies in multidisciplinary skills, all-hazard coverage, and resources for delivering world-class research to emergency and resource managers, the science community, planners, and policy makers.
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Notable events in 2007
The review contains
almost a dozen pages of maps and analysis of the year’s
natural hazards. Some examples are:
Volcanoes:
*
Mt Ruapehu Lahar, 18 March: 1.3 million cubic metres of warm
acidic water, entraining five times its weight in rock
debris.
* Mt Ruapehu ‘blue-sky’ eruption, 25
September: a boulder seriously injured a climber in Dome Hut
about 700m from the centre of the Crater Lake.
* Seismic
unrest at Mt Ngauruhoe: the volcano has not erupted since
1977, but seismic unrest began in 2006 and is
continuing.
Earthquakes:
* 26 earthquakes of
magnitude 5.0 or greater: this is about average for NZ
*
Gisborne earthquake, 20 December: magnitude 6.8. The
year’s worst earthquake and the most damaging since March
1987 Edgecumbe quake (magnitude
6.6).
Landslides:
* Over 100 significant
landslides, including a rockfall that killed a climber in Mt
Cook National Park in March.
Heavy rain &
floods:
* Northland, 28–29 March: now confirmed as
a 1-in-150 year event. The heaviest rain fell for over
8–10 hours, with over 40mm an hour falling in some
places.
* Nelson & Taranaki, 22–23 May: schools and
business closed; houses evacuated.
* Hawke’s Bay,
17–18 July: up to 300mm rain fell within 48 hours. The
army evacuated children from two flooded country
schools.
* South Canterbury & Otago, 30 July: heavy rain;
state of emergency declared.
Coastal hazards/
tsunami:
* East Coast South Island & Cook Strait,
25–26 June: gale force southerlies with 6m swells forced
ferry cancellations; 8m waves at Banks Peninsula.
*
Oamaru, June: storm conditions caused localised erosion;
factory destroyed.
* Four tsunami recorded, but no
resulting damage.
Other weather-related
hazards:
* Extraordinary swarm of damaging tornadoes
in Taranaki, 4–5 July, cut a 140km wide swath of damage;
state of emergency declared.
* Driest year on record in
many areas. Annual rainfall less than 75% of normal in the
east from Wairarapa to Otago, eastern Bay of Plenty,
Taranaki, Gisborne, Manawatu, Wellington, and Nelson.
*
Lightning strikes on a single night (13 March) cut power to
about 40,000 homes in Wellington.
* For the first time
since 2001, Central Otago curlers were able to play their
sport on the frozen Idaburn Dam (where temperatures fell as
low as minus 10ºC, 17 July). This is despite the fact that
the national average temperature for the year as a whole was
slightly above normal.
ENDS