Here she sleeps. In a pink hat emblazoned Baby’s Christmas, an infant is asleep tonight at an earthquake welfare centre at Linwood College, on the eastern edge of my electorate. Her dad had been beside her, dozing, before getting up for a stretch.
Father and child are among 50 people taking refuge tonight in the Linwood College hall, one of three such shelters across Christchurch. Most at Linwood are low income folk. Some have had homes damaged by quakes or without power or water; or kids too frightened to sleep in their own beds. Others are pleased to share mattresses on the floor so as to have company as the aftershocks continue.
We are a city rattled. A city where everyone has a quake story. And where the work continues ceaslessly. At the Linwood welfare centre, volunteers staff the entrance. A Red Cross team from Blenheim is on hand doing 12 hour shifts. Local St John are there as well.
State of play in our city? Orion lines co boss Roger Sutton advised me this morning that Orion hopes to have all properties’ power restored by the end of the week. Tonight it’s down to a thousand homes and businesses still unconnected.
Water supplies are restored to all but 28 streets. Sewage pumping stations are now working, however, the Avon will continue to carry sewage and stormwater for some time. Don’t whitebait or kayak! There is also the risk of water supply contamination. Already some tummy bug problems are being reported. People are urged to boil water for three minutes until an all clear is given.
The bigger picture is still scary. Aftershocks this afternoon into evening have been particularly frequent and scary. The biggest to date struck at 11.25 as I was writing this blog. First one since Saturday that’s made made me move to get under the table, followed by another almost as big a minute later!
Media are doing a good job but some messages need clarifying. Peter Townsend of the Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce says a Perth radio station today asked him about what he was doing now Christchurch’s CBD had been “obliterated.”
TVNZ and others were still this morning using the alfresco Spanish restaurant as a backdrop. Dramatic, yes. But not representative. Paul Henry was pleasant and professional when interviewing me there on Breakfast this morning. I remain a bit suss about coverage of our own home being badly damaged – there are many more worse off than us. Did learn from one immediate neighbour today that his house is “totalled”
Was pleased to see Kaiapoi get some coverage tonight, as there has been too much focus on the CBD. I went to see one of several surburban shop complexes in my electorate that are all but destroyed. Aftershocks then made the western side of Cranford/Westminster street shops unstable so they put the demolition digger to work today. Word is that the eastern block will go tomorrow, Tuesday. Sad to see such hstory go in St Albans, which is fiercely protective of its heritage buildings.
So it was good to see Civil Defence John Carter back in Christchurch after the longest Cabinet item of the current Government’s term, and to hear a start to the contributions for rebuilding our city. It will only scratch the surface but it is welcome.
The rebuilding and restoration will need to continue well past Baby’s Christmas, this year and next.
Kia kaha.
Im sorry about your heritage buildings in St Albans, but the reality is that they are totally unsuitable size for modern shopping. And I dont mean new strip malls. Replaced by new buildings of similar scale and location on site they will enhance the local shopping strip and allow them to attract back the local residents who would have migrated elsewhere.
Cute baby
I hope this is the last of the aftershocks.
Is Key and English serious about “cutting bureaucratic red tape” to get ChCh rebuilt ASAP?
What do they think is going to happen in the next earthquake to those ASAP’d rubber stamped buildings?
Why do they think so few lives were lost this time around?
Sometimes the red warning tape serves a purpose – to prevent people careening over a cliff.
And exactly why did those new subdivisions with brand new houses all get built on old silted up riverbeds, next to former marshlands?
That did not work out at all well.
Agreed, I mean being thorough over those buildings is what saved the city from being wrecked!
Loota – I sometimes wonder about your intelligence. (but then I wonder about the intelligence of all lefties)
Fast tracking consents does not mean that the engineering design will be compromised. In fact NZ has some of the best earthquake engineering and strictest code requirements in the world, and and reconstruction must adhere to thoses standards. Cutting through the red tape will mean exactly that – and provided all design is done properly people should not have to fight the Resource consent process to commence construction. A sensible step and initiative.
On your second post – one might wonder but then nearly all of Christchurch is built on old swamp and marsh. The city would not be built if that was one of the criteria. You wil find that through the rest of NZ there will be similar issues in many cities – such as the Hutt Valley.
As much is as practicable towns and cities need to expand where they can. Throughout NZ there are all sorts of geological risks with landslides, flooding, earthquake, winds, erosion, volcano erutption that propery owners are always faced with.
To build without risk may mean that no city in NZ would ever have been built. Maybe that is why we should all have insurance.
I remember when new AKL city homes had an expensive problem with the removal of building consent ‘red tape’.
Except this time lives are at stake, not weathertightness.
I am asking why NEW suburbs were built on silt and former marshland in the last 5 years.
And to ask people to look at the consequence of that decision today: streets which need to be demolished and the property value of the underlying land destroyed because metres of sand have come up.
People aren’t just going to take a hit on their houses. Their land is wrecked too.
Monty , modern engineering design should account for soft ground, using piles or reinforced concrete slabs in some cases.
But as a rule most houses arent built on unstable ground.
I think Taihape is one place where half the town is on a large landslide but new construction would only be done outside this area. This old landslide will probably start moving in the next earthquake or major rainstorm
“(but then I wonder about the intelligence of all lefties)” Aw Monty
I’m touched 
The areas with the most damage are all without fail close to either rivers or in the case of Bexley sewerage ponds. Liquification happened in areas that were wet plus more sandy than others. Being near a mass of water means more moisture right?
One of the worst affected areas is Dallington. Whole school being knocked down there. School is over 50 years old. So not a new development.
Loota your anti-development conspiracy is nonsense. Fact is that ChCh has never had a liquification event before, and the quake was on an unknown fault line.
Has the govt said how it intends by-pass local government authorities to speed up consents? They seem terribly vague as to how it is to be done. And what specifically will be Brownlee’s role? Also not defined or spelt out- presumably he will have staff- but what is it proposed they do?
Will they become a separate authority with their own planning powers? In which case they will need planning, urban design and building expertise. Will they have their own projects?
I’d much prefer federal government leave it to the locals to make their own decisions- but as we saw in the case of Canterbury Regional Council that never sems to happen.
GWW and other lefties – prior to this earthquake on an unknown fault – please advise me when the last event saw liquification in some areas. As Concerned points out some liquification occurrred in well established areas.
The whole of Christchurch is essentially built on a drained swamp. You also ignore the reality of expanion of areas to meet the demands of growing cities.
@ Monty and Concerned
You surely know you geography guys.
The unknown fault line is near a town called Darfield. Darfield is about 25kms from Christchurch. So you can’t use that excuse of an unknown fault line. Because it that close to Christchurch! The earthquake was that dam strong it march into Christchurch and tore the city down.
All of Canterbury felt it. I was woken up but the jolt!
Luckily I lived further enough away not to be affected.
Might I add only a few parts of Christchurch are built on drained swamp. Most of it was built on good solid land.
The areas that a worst affect, as pointed out by Concerned, are near mass of water means or moisture sources. Since the soil is softer it is generally less stable.
@ Monty
“(but then I wonder about the intelligence of all lefties)”
Well, I never knew you card so much hehehe