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Comment by antome | Hacker News Reader

Magnitude 7.5 earthquake. For reference, I felt this in Hamilton, a bit under 1,000 KM away. First earthquake I have ever felt. Hamilton never, ever gets earthquakes.

Nevertheless, NZ infrastructure is built to withstand this sort of stuff. Only $100m-1b economic damage is expected, no casualties expected.

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The problem with earthquakes is that damage accumulates. So while a building might stay intact or with minor damages during the main one, the aftershocks could wreck havoc. And with an 7.8 aftershocks could last for months and be quite severe.

Nevertheless I hope everyone is OK and wish you the best. I've experienced quite a few earthquakes in my life, although nothing over 7, and the shock stays for long. It's one of those times in your life when you feel completely helpless.

Yes but all multi Tennant buildings and large buildings will be inspected. We're pretty used to this and have some of thebest earthquake engineers in the world.

USGS is indicating 7.8.

NZ's Geonet and USGS use different versions of the Richter scale, so both are likely correct.

> Nevertheless, NZ infrastructure is built to withstand this sort of stuff

Building maybe. But our main transportation routes often have little redundancy and go through some potentially hazardous areas. State Highway 1 down the Kaikoura coast is a great example. Hopefully Lewis Pass survived ok.

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