Russ!
Russ, which group do you feel best helps you folks!
There are so many helping in so many different capacities and there is so much to be done that I would hesitate to single out any one group.
In these initial stages Urban Search And Rescue (USAR) are doing a fantastic job. In difficult and dangerous circumstances they are locating and retrieving people trapped in the rubble. They are saving lives and hopefully that will continue although eveyone understands that as the days pass the chances of many more being rescued alive are diminishing.
But help is coming in at all levels from different local, national and international groups. Not only do we have USAR teams to assist our own coming in from such countries as Australia, England, USA, Japan, China and probably others that I can't think of right now, but there are about 330 police arriving from Australia. Police are manning cordons around the CBD which is a 'no go' area for obvious reasons. The Army of course is also helping out and it is surreal to see the flattened buildings and tanks manning the cordons. Very like a war zone!
Medics have arrived. Field hospitals (triage centres) have been set up. Our local organisation and systems and execution have been described by the overseas specialists as the best they have ever come across, everything is running very smoothly. Biggest problem is rubber neckers causing congestion of the roads and hindering the progress of those trying to restore essential services. Really, where do these lemmings come from? I thought most Cantabrians had enough brains and savvy to figure out the problems that could cause!
Getting the infrastructure patched up and running is a major focus that is well under way and our teams are doing an exceptional job at that.
On a smaller scale, individual people and groups are helping in many different but significant ways. Local students have mobilised and are helping out, as they did in September. A small communications company in Auckland has come down with a van load of Nokia car chargers that they are driving around and distributing free to anyone with a Nokia whose cell phone has gone flat and don't have access to mains power.
Many people from other centres, and also from the unaffected parts of Christchurch, have offered at no cost to house people displaced by this event.
Air New Zealand has laid on extra planes and offered $50 flights to anywhere in the country for people wishing to leave the city and this has been very popular too.
There is a group in Dunedin, 350 kms to the south, who have put a call out to Dunedinites to make cut lunches and have organised a van to bring them up to Christchurch for free distribution. There are many groups and individual NZers, probably thousands, doing these sorts of smaller scale things on their own initiative and all of their efforts are appreciated and are a great help. They are just as important as the larger scale overseas assistance that we are getting.
At a community level we all get stuck in and help each other and look after our neighbours. We will come through this and be a stronger and better city and country as a result.
