New Zealand has marked the 10-year anniversary of the start of the Canterbury earthquake sequence, the biggest insured event in the country’s history and at the time the fourth most expensive global natural disaster.

Insurance Council of New Zealand (ICNZ) figures as of June 30 show private insurers have paid $NZ22.14 billion ($20.42 billion) to settle 168,681 claims, which is in addition to around $NZ10 billion ($9.2 billion) paid by the state-owned Earthquake Commission (EQC). Some claims remain to be settled a decade on.

The initial 7.2 magnitude Darfield earthquake caused damage but no loss of life in Christchurch when it struck early on September 4 2010, in a prelude to more devastating events in the months ahead.

“Ten years ago, many Cantabrians would already have been awake for a few hours,” EQC said on social media this morning. “That’s because at 4:35am the most damaging earthquake to hit NZ since the Hawkes Bay quake in 1931 rocked the region. Today we remember this life-changing event and everyone affected.”

A second more destructive earthquake followed in February 2011, leading to the loss of 185 lives, injuries to several thousand people and widespread damage to land and buildings. Further seismic events struck the region that year adding to the impacts.

ICNZ claims data includes commercial claims and “over cap” domestic property claims that are handled by private insurers after an initial sum covered by EQC is reached.

A total of 531 property claims remain open, with some of those caught up in legal disputes, while 97.6% of commercial claims have been settled.

ICNZ CEO Tim Grafton says the total paid by the industry equates to $NZ6 million ($5.5 billion) every day or $250,000 ($230,625) an hour since September 4 a decade ago.

“It is phenomenal how much money in terms of settlements has been pumped into the Canterbury economy over the past decade,” Mr Grafton told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

“Sadly, we still have some outstanding claims and everyone is trying their level best to get those settled as quickly as possible.”

EQC said this week there are no claims left from the original earthquakes but customers are able to make further claims when any damage was missed or under assessed. Over-cap claims are continuing to be passed to private insurers.

A public inquiry released a report into the EQC this year, after continuing criticism of its response to Canterbury, while private insurers say their earlier involvement after the more recent Kaikoura catastrophe provides a model for improvements.

“There have been a lot of lessons learned,” Mr Grafton said. “We need to have a better approach in future and I think the Kaikoura earthquake back in 2016 points to a way forward.”

EQC says before 2010 many of the large earthquakes occurred in remote places such as Fiordland where they had little impact on people.

The devastating February 22 2011 Canterbury earthquake “hit the bullseye” of the Christchurch business district and blew previous ground-shaking records set by Darfield out of the water, a paper written as part of a two-part series to mark the anniversary says.

“The particular challenge of the last decade is that most of the large earthquakes happened close to towns and cities and at very shallow depths,” it says.