There are many lessons California can learn from Christchurch.
Many brick and stone structures also collapsed, killing more than 40 others. Most were not inside collapsing buildings, but were killed by falling debris while they were outside or in vehicles. While some big cities like L.
A. and San Francisco have pushed to retrofit or demolish brick buildings, a number of . Most California cities have not ordered potentially vulnerable concrete buildings to be strengthened, including San Francisco.California and New Zealand both have tried to tackle seismic safety issues, but Kiwis are well ahead of the Golden State when it comes to insurance. New Zealand is unusual for its remarkably high earthquake insurance rate. In California, most homeowners are required by their lenders to have only fire insurance. In New Zealand, however, the government created the New Zealand Earthquake Commission, which is ato anyone with a standard residential fire insurance policy typically required by lenders, Noy said. More than 95% of residential properties have standard fire insurance, and, as a result, are also insured for earthquakes. The system wasn’t perfect. There have been complaints about how the commission was ill-prepared to manage the massive influx in claims. And some people were under-insured. But the high insurance rate prevented many from losing it all. If a major quake hit California, homeowners would be much more exposed. Only about 11% of California homeowners have quake insurance. Small businesses were also helped by a temporary government program in the months after the earthquake. The government propped up small businesses and their employees with an earthquake support subsidy — keeping paychecks of $320 a week flowing for between5. Future California earthquakes can be worse than Christchurch’s. Worst-case earthquakes hitting California’s oldest and largest cities can be far more destructive than what happened in Christchurch in 2011. While both sit along major tectonic plate boundaries, California is far more populous than New Zealand, and has much more to lose in a big earthquake.
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