Tuesday report:
A group of five of us from the Green Party went into Parklands today. Thanks to Marilyn, Anne, Dot and Liz. Thanks also to Nick, a local in Parklands, too. Thanks to Dave Hill for alerting us to the needs of Parklands community centred on the Baptist Church on Queens Park Drive.
We went in, armed with 140 kg of apples that Marilyn and I had purchased wholesale price from an orchard near Loburn last night. Thanks to Annabel and Mark Roulston -- friends and suppliers at the Canterbury Farmers' Market.
We linked up with the Student Army again and followed their buses into Parklands in our two cars. Each student has a shovel; it looks for all the world like the Peasants’ Revolt. Stunningly effective organization by the Canterbury students – their (not long for this world?) student union deserves a medal.
Then, in coordination with their groups, we separated off into and around the Parklands Baptist Church which is acting as a welfare centre, meeting with the minister and his assistants. We off-loaded two-thirds of our apples there, and then took the rest with us for door-knocking, distributing the CCC emergency fliers. We had a few humanitarian cases but they were not as exigent as yesterday – the area was wealthy, houses 4 years old, many with slight signs of structural damage which usually means quite significant repair required. Much liquefacted soil, with heavy machinery operating; less sludge/sewerage than in New Brighton yesterday. Official estimate at present (as I understand it) is 10,000 homes up for demolition and 100,000 damaged, out of some 150,000.
Most people we meet, over the past three days, say we are the first humanitarian visit they have had. The students simply drop leaflets and do not door-knock. The farmers move silt with their machinery. Door-knocking is time-consuming but necessary and effective, in our view.
Mercifully, the weather has been good, pretty warm but not much wind. Once the heavy soil is removed (90% likely removed by Friday), there will remain fine silt which will be very difficult in strong winds.
We visited one Green member in need in Dallington today. No power, water, sanitation, food, or transport (cycling is a challenge through the thick silt). We shall bring her provisions tomorrow. I am encouraging her to think of a welfare centre.
One issue that emerged was arranging to get (two) business owners through the cordon to visit their offices. The Civil Defence MP line helped ensure that this worked, albeit requiring many phone calls and exhortation of the local authorities at several stages along the way. But one just called to express appreciation since it had all worked.
Others have involved pleas for portaloos for the elderly in a specific site and for food and gas (plus money) in others. Working on those.
The Graham family express took a personal hit today. The heat and silt and road surfaces proved too much for the aging Prius hybrid which expired on the way home. It is parked forlornly outside the Fendalton Library awaiting the tow truck – to the Toyota repairs, not the dump, as yet. Toyota are kindly lending us a vehicle.
When the 12.51 silence went, the heavy machinery fell silent, and our little band of six embraced in a circle off Lamorna Rd, Parklands, East Christchurch. We crossed over a grassed mound at the side of the street into a glade of sad trees, with their trunks drowned in grey liquefaction. Seemed the place to be. The generators continued to hum.
I learn that some local MPs were at the ceremony with the PM outside the Art Gallery. I have enquired with the PM’s office to learn that it was organised by the Mayor and that the PM’s office had encouraged National MPs to stay out in the field. So, I was in the right place, I reckon, albeit largely anonymous.
