USAR engineering response to the 2011 Christchurch earthquake

This paper provides an overview of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake with particular reference to the Urban Search and Rescue operations. The USAR operations involved some 700 specialist personnel from New Zealand, Australia, Japan, USA, UK, China, Taiwan and Singapore, comprising Technicians, Engineers, Doctors, hazard experts and Police with search dogs. The USAR response lasted some four weeks and the paper describes the three distinct phases comprising; rescue, victim recovery and city/suburb safe operations. The Magnitude 6.3 Lyttelton earthquake struck within 10 kilometres of Christchurch CBD and caused massive damage to buildings and lifelines with some 184 confirmed deaths and a repair bill in the order of $15-20 billion dollars.