New Zealand Engineer Mission to Padang, Indonesia

A M7.6 earthquake, with depth 80 km, occurred near Padang City, Sumatra, Indonesia on 30th October 2009. Padang is a city of nearly 1 million people. The earthquake reportedly caused significant and widespread building damage from shaking (well in excess of 40,000 buildings), as well as from earthquake induced land sliding and liquefaction.

On Monday 12th October, seven engineers from New Zealand and one from Jakarta arrived in Padang to assist in advising local Pandang Public Works engineers on building safety assessments and demolition. Two additional engineers from New Zealand arrived on Wednesday 14th October. They will be in Depang until Saturday 24th October. The original request for assistance was from UN Development Programme (UNDP) Indonesia. The mission was initially organised by Earthquake Engineering NZ and is supported by NZAID, EQC, DBH and NZSEE.

More detail on the earthquake, background to the mission and daily updates can be found by following the links under “Recent Earthquakes” on the NZSEE home web-page Photographs will be uploaded in the next day.

Win Clark
Executive Officer for NZSEE