Shaky shores: Coastal impacts & responses to the 2016 Kaikoura earthquakes

This report describes the impacts and responses of the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake, which triggered a tsunami and landslides. As with many emergency response situations, the main lessons to come out of the experience are the importance of relationships before and during the response, and how effective communication is utterly crucial to an effective response. Maintaining public confidence is a very important factor in this. It is also important for local governments to contract geotechnical experts who can rapidly assess disaster damages, while national level changes are sometimes necessary to determine who will issue warnings and subsequently facilitate evacuations.