Natural disaster

Abstract

The theme of the seminar, panel discussion and open forum, organised by the EQC and the Insurance Council, was Natural Disaster: Finding, managing, and sharing people and information. Emphasis was placed on the recovery and reconstruction phases, beginning about 10 days after the disaster occurred. To provide a focus for discussion, the scenario chosen was the Great Wellington Earthquake, for which fairly detailed modelling has been done, most notably for the Wellington after the Quake Conference, 1995. (1) The seminar was, in fact, a follow-up to that conference, at which various recommendations for action had been made, such as:
 
 raising public awareness o f the recovery aspects of disasters; 
 planning for rebuilding, restoration, or relocation in advance of the disaster occurring so that the stress of immediacy and its effects on decision making are reduced; 
 ensuring that homeowners, the insurance and building industries, and owners of businesses and buildings have procedures in place to improve the effectiveness of efforts to restore normalcy to disaster-affected areas.(2) 
 
 The seminar was attended by about 100 participants, representing the insurance industry, territorial local authorities, emergency management/civil defence organisations (both local and central), the building industry, the engineering industry and professional engineering societies, and research organisations.