Central City Red Zone

[2][3] Authorities cleared the central city of people, established a cordon on the day of the earthquake[4][failed verification] and denied access.

The day after the earthquake, the New Zealand Government declared a state of national emergency, which stayed in force until 30 April 2011.

In the eastern suburbs, the colour red refers to land that is subject to liquefaction or the related effect of lateral spreading and that is deemed uneconomic to repair;[7] with over 7,000 properties being purchased by The Crown[8] under what has been called a voluntary yet coercive scheme – while residents were free to refuse the Government's buyout of their homes, the Government cautioned that remaining in place would entail a lack of insurance, infrastructure, and city services.

A white zone also applied in the central city initially, as geotechnical assessments were not carried out there for many months.

The cordoned area was thus further subdivided, with an outer orange zone accessible to residents, but no access to the inner red zone other than people authorised first by Civil Defence and later by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA).

[20] On 21 March 2011, about 100 business owners protested at the Art Gallery, the temporary headquarters of Civil Defence, about lack of access to critical business property (e.g. computer servers, merchandise, cash) as well as a lack of communication, with some buildings having been demolished without any prior communication.

[21][22] The next day, the New Zealand Government issued a press release, with Civil Defence Minister John Carter stating that it was "foolish to breach the cordon around the red zone.

[25] Over time, the role of the army personnel at the cordon entry points changed from simply restricting access to become guides to tourists and locals alike, with even locals not knowing their way around any longer as so many landmarks have been demolished.

[28] CERA ran weekend red zone bus tours from November[29][30] to December 2011.

[34] From November to December 2011, a pathway surrounded by security fences between Cathedral Square and Cashell Mall allowed the public to visit the area.

New Zealand Army soldiers manning the red zone cordon on 23 February 2011 at the Hagley Park end of Armagh Street
Colombo Street in May 2011; 15 people died in this section, including 8 on buses hit by falling façades
Oxford Terrace in the Avon Loop, an area that was initially in the Central City Red Zone and later became part of the residential red zone
Manchester Street on the day of the earthquake
Photo taken in November 2011 during a red zone bus tour; the empty spot is where Fisher's Building used to stand