Hi all,
The last long missive that I posted has gone out to politicians and newspapers. Although written at 2 am I'm not sure which day. I like to think that it has had some effect and that present work in the eastern suburbs has increased due to it and not the Prime Minister's visit today (my cynicism is showing - put it down as a quake effect). My cousin in New Brighton has had power and water restored this morning.
The statistics of water and power restoration is a little misleading as the percentage is based on the whole of Christchurch. What we do not see is the percentage restored of the devastated eastern suburbs and I strongly suspect that the rate of increase in those areas is still slow as I understand that some special underground cabling has to be imported from Germany. The alternative of pole-supplied power would be just as slow as there are no power poles in those roads which have underground wiring. The sewerage system is an even worse catch-22 situation. Miles (or km) of underground pipes must be checked and the broken pumping stations fixed (others of these are being run by diesel-generated power). Otherwise temporary plastic piping also has to be imported. It seems that NZ has run out of portaloos. These are now coming from Australia. To fix these things certainly will take time, many months. Without distracting from the anguish suffered by relatives and friends of the deceased and injured, we must also quickly help those whose suffer from disabilities, age complaints etc. The anguish of a person whose close relative has died from a heart attack or stroke due to earthquake stress 2 days after the event is no less than those whose relative has died or been badly injured. The last 10 days has seen the heart attacks, strokes and stress related family breakups increase markedly. The two refugees. long-time friends, staying at home here ( 80 & 94 y.o.) do show noticeable changes in behaviour. I cannot say to them or others "box on" or "get over it". Talk the talk and walk the walk with them.
We all have much respect and empathy for the foot-soldiers of rescue and recovery efforts and the many, many volunteers who help out in their own way. There are thousands of them. There are pockets of the city which do feel neglected. Is this a chance effect just like the great differences in the effects of the earthquakes on property?
I feel very sorry for the Mexican team which arrived and told they could not help in the CBD as they did not have formal paperwork. Their special search dogs were quarantined. Their experience of the Haiti earthquake aftermath was thus used to help out in a suburb, much to the delight of the residents, but not a proper use of their professional expertise. This is an example of the lapse in the "upper" levels of emergency responsibility and communication. Medical triage for a small group has well defined guidelines and in most cases made by professionals. Triage for a city population is neither fully developed (can it ever be?) nor entirely professional. Whereas a medic has to make a decision with little or no other input, civil defence relies on input from many individuals, and it is the coordination of that input which sometimes fails - witness the demolition of the church without proper "authority" or by an extreme "do it yourself". Also an individual may get away with bending the "rules". A civil defence committee cannot; it must follow the straight and narrow path of the law, even under national emergency conditions. My experience in a search and rescue team makes me suspicious of "supervisors" as some do it with an eye to personal advancement in a community. In the end the professionals are way ahead of the politicos and, unfortunately, some of the problems in the guidance of these Christchurch operations seem due to political bias.
MalNZ
