Kaiapoi One Of Worst Hit Places In The Quake – Offers Of Help Turned Down

Whilst attention has been mostly focused on the central part of Christchurch city following Saturday’s 7.1 magnitude quake, little has been told (or seen) about the devastation further out of town.

Journalists at last seem to have escaped ‘media central’ in the City and travelled further afield to report on the true scale of the devastation and how it is still affecting hundreds of people in their day to day lives.

Google Map of Kaiapoi, North of Christchurch

This report appeared today on Yahoo.co.nz News.

Kaiapoi has been one of the worst hit areas in the Canterbury quake, with massive dips and huge holes in the roads and Pine Beach residents need four wheel drive vehicles to get to their homes.

Only half of the sewerage system is working and with at least 30 to 40 houses needing to be demolished, reporter Brodie Kane says the settlement will never look the same.

“You can’t always see the damage on the outside, but when you go inside and have a closer look at these houses, they’re on a lean and they’ve started to sink.”

She says the latest aftershocks have been huge. “You just don’t know when the next one’s going to happen and a lot of people are very emotional about that and they’ve had enough of these quakes.”

Despite the damage and after shocks, residents are working to help others. One woman who no longer has a home to go to, has been manning a Civil Defence point since Saturday morning.”

Photographs from Kaiapoi (click to enlarge)

As yet there have been no announcements made about how these homeless people’s welfare is to be assured, or of how their children will be schooled.

For these outlying areas it’s been very much a case of every man, woman and child for themselves. People are expected to be able to look after themselves for at least three days following a major disaster in New Zealand.

Today is the third day and the country has yet to accept the offers of assistance that were made by the UN and the USA military based in Hawaii.Perhaps it’s time to admit that help is needed.

Poll: Is Foreign Help Needed?

Yahoo.co.nz is running a poll asking Should foreign help be turned down when a natural disaster has just struck?

53% responded “No – we should take all the help we can get.“

See also:

Families Needing Food After Quake– “Some Canterbury families are running out of food, four days after the big quake. Waimakariri Civil Defence Information Officer, Monese Ball, is calling for donations of food to the Kaiapoi Community Support Centre in Williams Street…Ms Ball is also concerned about reports of people sleeping in their cars in the Kaiapoi area, not realising there was anywhere else to go, but welfare centres at North Kaiapoi School and Pines Beach Hall will stay open as long as they’re needed.”