Edgecumbe

Edgecumbe is a 1626 inhabitants counting village in Whakatane District in the Bay of Plenty region in the North Island of New Zealand.

Become known about the local borders is the place through the Edgecumbe earthquake of 1987.

Origin of the name

The town's name was probably chosen on the basis of Mount Edgecumbe, the 821 m high volcano, which lies about 18 km south-west of Edgecumbe and from any point on the Rangitaiki Plain from is clearly visible. The mountain itself was named by James Cook, who visited the Bay of Plenty in October 1769 and saw from the sea the survey. He named the mountain after George may Edgecumbe, an admiral of the British Navy.

Geography

The town lies on the Rangitaiki River in the middle of the level of the Rangitaiki Plain, 15 km west of Whakatane and about eight kilometers south of the coast of the Bay of Plenty away. Traffic Technically Edgecumbe on State Highway 2 is connected, which divides the city into two halves. The parallel to State Highway 2 running Built in 1910, the railway line is no longer in operation.

Economy

The place is economically determined by two factors. For one of agriculture, which has focused in the wide flat land on the milk production and the processing of milk into milk powder and other products by the New Zealand Fonterra Group, which operates a factory in the village and thus with addition of agriculture to main employer has become in the plane.

Economic impairments experienced by the region around Edgecumbe again and again by the recurring floods. Although the frequency of flooding has diminished by the construction of two dams Aniwhenua and Matahina. The largest floods, the region had experienced in 1891 and 1925 and the last major flood in July 2004 sold approximately 17,000 ha of land under water.

Edgecumbe earthquake

See main article: Edgecumbe earthquake of 1987

On March 2, 1987, against 13:35 clock, shook an earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale, the Bay of Plenty, left turn the power off and sent the man on the street. Just 7 minutes later was the second quake, which should go down in the history of the town and the region with a magnitude of 6.5. The epicenter was just 15 kilometers north of Edgecumbe between Thornton and Matata. As a result of the shock waves in the earth interrupted at various points. The longest and the 7 km rupture was 1 km south-west of Edgecumbe, produced an offset of up to 3 m, and let the western part of the plain between 1.5 and 2 meters drop abruptly.

Although the magnitude of the earthquake was not exceptionally high compared with other earthquakes in the country, but substantial damage was caused by the flat extending below the surface shock waves that observers described as roles. Edgecumbe, Te Teko, Kawerau, Matata and Thornton, were the cities that have been experiencing the most damage. Approximately 50 % of the houses in Edgecumbe were damaged. The paper mill in Kawerau, 18 km south-west of Edgecumbe, as well as the dairy plant in Edgecumbe were severely damaged. The lying 15 km south of Edgecumbe Matahina dam was so badly damaged that it had to be emptied and the evacuation of 3,000 people temporarily became necessary. As a result of the earthquake, the dam had cracked and was leaking radiation to the pillars, which in 1988 made ​​it necessary to repair and pulled a subsequent gain of the dam in the late 1990s after themselves, to cope with future stronger earthquake.

Forewarned by the foreshock, no people were in the main quake and the four major aftershocks over magnitude 5 killed, but there were probably many injured. The insurance cost the quake 315 million NZ $.

Swell

• Edgecumbe - The Heart of the Rangitaiki, 1914-1989, Edgecumbe and District Primary School, Edgecumbe, New Zealand, 1989.