WELLINGTON | Sun Sep 5, 2010 12:01pm EDT

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Strong aftershocks and wild gale-force winds
buffeted a clean-up of New Zealand's second biggest city on Sunday
following the country's most damaging earthquake in 80 years.

Christchurch and a large surrounding area of rural towns and farms on
South Island were struck by the magnitude 7.1 quake early on Saturday
morning, bringing down power lines, ripping up roads, smashing water and
sewage pipes, and wrecking building facades. There were no deaths and
only a few injuries.

Initial estimates for the cost of earthquake damage have been put at
around NZ$3 billion, but Key said that the Earthquake Commission, a
state disaster insurance fund, had sufficient assets to be able to cover
claims.

Some of the city's large public facilities including major bridges, the
airport, university and a sports stadium which will host games at next
year's Rugby World Cup, appeared to have suffered only superficial
damage, although detailed engineering studies were still underway.

A state of emergency remained in force throughout the region and the
central business district of Christchurch remained shut.

"We've got some tough days ahead of us and I'm not optimistic,"
Christchurch mayor Bob Parker told Television New Zealand.

"I'd like the central area to be open for business tomorrow, but looking
at some of the buildings around here that would be less likely."

All schools in Christchurch and some surrounding area hit by the massive
quake are to be closed until at least Wednesday as engineers are making
essential structural checks.

Civil Defense Minister John Carter said the United Nations and the
United States have offered assistance, but it has been turned down as
the country could cope.

BUILDINGS DAMAGED

Around 500 buildings were estimated to have been destroyed, with more
than 90 in the center, the Christchurch City Council said.

Aftershocks, the strongest measuring magnitude 5.1, continued to send
lose bricks and masonry crashing into the streets. Winds gusting up to
130 kilometers an hour (80 miles an hour) were also forecast, raising
fears that weakened buildings will be further damaged or collapse.

Nearly 300 people displaced from their houses were staying in emergency
centers, and around 1,000 had been fed by welfare groups. Power has been
restored to 95 percent of the region and water to 80 percent, although
water was still not safe to drink because of contamination from broken
sewage pipes.

A formal civil Defense state of emergency was still in force in the city
of around 350,000 allowing authorities to control and coordinate
recovery operations in the city.

Prime Minister John Key, who grew up in Christchurch and has a sister
living there, said after a tour of the city that the clean up and
reconstruction would be a long job.

"At least a year, it's not a short term thing and it's going to take
some weeks to present those issues," Key told TVNZ.

It is likely to be the most damaging quake in New Zealand since the
northern city of Napier was devastated in 1931.

Christchurch city and the neighboring small towns bore the full force of
the quake, which did considerable damage to infrastructure.

The quake was among the 10 strongest recorded in New Zealand, which sits
between the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates, and records
around 14,000 earthquakes a year, of which around 20 top magnitude 5.0.

The last fatal quake was in 1968 when an earthquake measuring 7.1 killed
three people on the South Island's West Coast.

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