A woman walks past a building in Christchurch after it was damaged by a powerful earthquake which struck the city on September 4. (AFP: Greg Wood)
Traumatised NZ quake victims 'like zombies'By Philippa McDonald
Updated Tue Sep 7, 2010
Welfare agencies say many Christchurch residents are walking around like zombies, terrified the aftershocks will bring down their house.
Salvation Army captain Kelvin Turner says people are very traumatised.
"I was just talking to a gentleman this morning [who is] in a council flat and there's people above him and he's concerned the top flat's going to come down and crush him," he said.
"So he can't sleep, he's not sleeping well at all and every shake he's just terrified the flat above him is going to come down.
"We've had one lady that came in, in the initial crunch on the weekend, and she is still wandering like a zombie.
"She wants to talk it out and sometimes she just doesn't even want to talk it out; she just wants to hold somebody's hand. She is so frightened."
New Zealand prime minister John Key has cancelled a trip to Europe to deal with the disaster.
He was to have met Britain's prime minister and the French president and stay with the Queen at Balmoral, but has cancelled to help coordinate the response to Saturday's earthquake.
Mr Key says the government will provide ongoing support to Christchurch residents traumatised by the disaster.
"I think people are very fearful of what might come next, and given the number of aftershocks we've had now - well over 100 - I can understand the trauma that people are feeling," he said.
"That will mean the government will have to provide those services for support and counselling for a period of time, and actually for a long period of time I would've thought."
Mr Key also announced an aid package for businesses.
The scheme, which is likely to cost $75 million, will subsidise the wages of workers in small businesses for the next month.
The money will be paid directly to employers and will cover the first $300 of one week's wages.
He is expecting employers to cover the rest of an employee's wage.
Public health issues
Around 800 homeless people are being housed at a raceway in Christchurch.
Mr Turner says there is a number of public health issues, including food contamination.
"Obviously because of this number and all being together, and all going in after each other, there's a huge opportunity for disease to spread and we've got to do our part to make sure it doesn't happen," he said.
Mr Turner says there are also quarantine areas for gastroenteritis.
"[They can accommodate] as many as we would need to, and if we couldn't do that here the civil defence have got access to other medical centres," he said.
"[However] I think the challenge is more for other people rather than us.
"We've got troops that we're bringing in, we're doing shifts where people are coming in and they are just working absolutely fantastic. We've got people offering to help us and food sources are coming in today."
Even the sleeping conditions in the raceway are "absolutely fantastic", says Mr Turner.
"Roundabout 3:30 in the day a whole tribe of workers arrive and they convert a vacant floor to mattresses, cubicles, little lockdown areas, barriers with a blanket," he said.
"They're just like busy beavers and that's what's happening. The people are just working together. It's absolutely awesome."
Clean-up
A state of emergency remains in place until tomorrow as the army enforces a no-go zone amid reports of looting in the city centre.
About 100,000 homes have been damaged and reconstruction costs could top $1.5 billion.
However, newly appointed minister responsible for earthquake recovery Gerry Brownlee says little progress can be made until the aftershocks stop.
"Five-point-four is a pretty big shake, so the rolling of the ground continues and the damage will continue to be done," he said.
"So we're like everybody else, just wondering when is the point where you start to seriously move forward."
New fault-line data
Since the quake, scientists have been mapping the fault line trying to find out more about what is happening under the ground in Christchurch.
Dr Simon Cox, a geologist at New Zealand's national earth sciences organisation, says the team has uncovered some unusual results.
"One of the key things we've been doing here is a team from GNS Science at the University of Canterbury have been looking at the fault trace, the rip in the ground, and mapping where it goes. And there's absolutely no sign of this fault having been across this area before," he said.
"It seems to be the first time it has done something like this ever since the land has been formed here, and they are probably about 18,000 years old or thereabouts."
Dr Cox says the data should also help them to work out what effect the earthquake has had on neighbouring fault lines.
"We would certainly be looking at the other faults around the place which have got a history of motion on them and looking to see whether or not this earthquake has made them more susceptible, or less susceptible, to future rupture," he said.
"But often, we're still in the phase with earthquakes, that they do very much happen without us being able to have any prior warning really."
