Victoria avoids widespread damage to infrastructure from earthquake as insurance claims pour in

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As Victoria recovers from one of the region’s largest earthquakes since European settlement, business owners are tallying the damage, which initially appears to be much lower than other natural disaster events this year.

KEY POINTS: The 5.9-magnitude quake struck around 9:15 a.m. Wednesday, geologists said it was the largest in the region’s recorded history, around 1,700 insurance claims have been filed across Australia in connection with the quake.

About 96 per cent of the claims came from Victoria, with some coming from NSW and the ACT, Lisa Capel, director of communications for the Australian Insurance Council (ICA).

“We are in the range of 1,700 claims as of today,” she said.

“And speaking with the insurance companies, they said they had a few structural damages [reports]There were some chimneys supported and some walls buttressed.”

She said that given the rarity of earthquakes in Australia, the Civil Aviation Authority has been in contact with its counterparts in New Zealand for advice.

Ms Kable said it was very difficult to compare the level of damage from the earthquake with other natural disasters, but said the most recent example of this was the severe storms that hit Victoria in June.

“This particular event is approximately 26,500 claims and damages invoices estimated at approximately $230 million,” Cable said.

She said, however, that it is still too early to judge whether more people will file claims since the damage from the earthquake has been determined.

She said anyone who discovers property damage in the coming days and weeks should contact their insurance company immediately.

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“Walk them in your own circumstances, damage to your property, and they’ll organize the next steps,” she said.

An insurance claim will be filed by the owners of Betty’s Burger and Concrete Co. In Windsor, after part of an outer wall collapsed during an earthquake.

Betty’s Burgers managing director Troy McDonagh said they have yet to assess the extent of the damage.

“It looks like it was just some structural damage to the top of the building and it fell and hit the canopy on the other side,” he said.

Mr McDonagh said the event was surreal, but he was glad everyone survived unharmed.

“It’s just another thing we have to overcome, but we will overcome it and our team is safe.”

No workers had yet entered the building when the earthquake struck. (

supplied

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Several local heritage listed buildings on Chapel Street in Melbourne were damaged by the earthquake, but no wider damage has been recorded by Heritage Victoria for the country’s listed heritage sites.

A spokesperson for Heritage Victoria said he was not aware of any impacts on the country’s listed heritage sites after the earthquake.

“Heritage Victoria will continue to assess impacts on state-listed heritage buildings across the state.”

The 5.9-magnitude earthquake topped the record charts for Victoria, according to Stephen Curry of Union University’s Department of Earth Sciences.

“Never before in our recorded history have we experienced such an earthquake,” said Dr. Carey.

He said the damage seen at the surface level was often affected by the depth of the earthquake.

“You can have a very large earthquake that occurs at a depth of 100 km and cause much less damage than a weaker earthquake that occurred at a depth of 10 km like the earthquake [on Wednesday]. “

Dr. Carey said that while Wednesday’s quake was very close to the surface, it was likely that an earthquake would strike at a shallow depth.

“It’s definitely possible. If we get a shallow one, it will have an increased effect.”

He said that the rocky structure of Victoria had shown many faults, which had led to frequent seismic activity in the east of the state.

“We’ve had over the past few years little earthquakes in Gippsland, it just shook people up a little bit there.”

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While stronger earthquakes are possible, Dr Carey said building standards and awareness of seismic activity have improved significantly since the 1989 Newcastle earthquake.

“Up until that point, people in most of Australia weren’t worried about earthquakes,” he said. “It really did lead to a lot of people getting hit by a missile.”

“Newcastle has been really important in our understanding of earthquake risk in Australia, and in responding to it with better building codes.”

Geoscience Australia has warned that aftershocks may continue for up to several weeks after the main earthquake.

We urge Victorians in need of emergency earthquake-related assistance to call SES at 132500.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to search, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 3 min 50sec 3pm 50sec How big are the earthquakes in Australia and how prepared are we?

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