Ten Years After New Zealand Earthquake, No Justice For Victims Of Building Collapse scoop.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from scoop.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Ten years after New Zealand earthquake, no justice for victims of building collapse
Monday marks ten years since the February 22, 2011, Christchurch earthquake, which killed 185 people. Thousands of buildings were destroyed or severely damaged, and entire suburbs in the city’s working class east, an area once home to 10,000 people, were left uninhabitable and eventually abandoned, with the houses all demolished.
Thousands of homeowners spent years fighting with private insurers and government agencies for their properties to be repaired or rebuilt. Some have still not received any payouts, one decade after the disaster.
The death toll was not simply the product of an unavoidable natural disaster. Nearly two thirds of the lives lost, 115 people, were in the CTV (Canterbury Television) Building, which collapsed in seconds due to its extremely unsafe design. New Zealand is well-known for its frequent earthquakes, yet thousands of buildings are not constructed to withstand a severe