Damage costs for houses and farms as a function of intensity in the 1987 edgecumbe earthquake

Abstract

AbstractThis paper describes an analysis of damage costs to house and farm property in the Ms = 6.6 Edgecumbe, New Zealand earthquake of 2 March 1987. The study investigated damage ratios for dwellings, their contents and domestic motor vehicles. The damage costs were converted to damage ratios by dividing them by the total value of the relevant property in the intensity zones concerned. The mean values and statistical distributions of these damage ratios were then found, the lognormal distribution fitting very well.The mean damage ratio for house buildings at MM intensity IX was 0.080 and the mean damage ratios were generally smaller than previous studies had shown. The mean damage ratios were similar for buildings and contents from MM6 to MM9, but there was no correlation between building and contents damage on an individual basis.