With a significant number of Wellington buildings damaged, with Kaikoura cut off, with State Highway 1 impassable along parts of that coast line, and with the main trunk railway line damaged beyond immediate repair, this must encourage us to do more planning for similar events.
That's the view of Dr Brendon Bradley, a professor in earthquake engineering at the University of Canterbury.
Dr Bradley is the deputy director of QuakeCoRE - a national network of earthquake resilience researchers who say a nation where earthquakes are so common should never be under-prepared for them.
Of course, lots of people said such things after the Canterbury earthquakes.
But Dr Bradley worries the country has still been caught somewhat flat-footed.
And, in broad terms, nothing about what has happened this week should have surprised anyone.
Resilience is the word - and while lots of people have said it, there is more that can be done to help achieve it.
Watch the video or listen to the audio version of this report here:
"A lot of people focus on individual buildings or individual houses. I really think the big issue is what we call these lifeline networks... the things that provide us our power, sewerage, water, telephone, internet, all those kinds of things" - Dr Brendon Bradley