Post Blog: Christchurch Earthquake - A Loss Adjuster's Diary (Day three)

It's my third day in New Zealand and I have grown to admire Christchurch. It certainly has to be one of New Zealand's bravest and most resilient communities.

I also sense the start of its renaissance. Pop-up stores have emerged in Cashel Street and, while the city's rebuild is carefully planned, this humble initiative has emerged as a funky option to kick-start Christchurch's retail and hospitality sectors.

The development showcases almost 30 retailers, many of which previously occupied now demolished shops nearby.

Business interruption cover ran out for many of the owners months ago, so for most this represents a good opportunity to bounce back.

Last night I flew to Auckland to have dinner with a major client and their consultant structural engineers.

They have created an engineering model enabling them to work with Crawford adjusters to evaluate the differing seismic structural damage caused across the earthquake events. This allows proper allocation of losses by the cedant for reinsurers' consideration.

Plato once said that "necessity is the mother of invention", and in all kinds of ways I am seeing this in New Zealand in the many new claim solutions being created.

Anyway, the dinner was excellent - the consultants paid for it. Tomorrow I am joining a planning meeting in Christchurch when we will discuss how our adjuster resource will be used over the next six months.

P.S. Following my revealing of the news about Christchurch's missing wheelie bins, a colleague emailed me to say "mine has just been nicked" and could I bring him one back.

Not sure the airline will allow it as hand luggage but I may give it a go.