Christchurch earthquake 3 months on

Many Christchurch residents are frustrated by the slow progress on repairing their quake damaged city. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Opinion

Three months to the day from the devastating February 22 Christchurch earthquake, an inquest has begun investigating the 182 deaths. And in the east of the city, writes Sam Fisher, the people are bracing for winter.

I sit in the long line of vehicles on the dusty, uneven road staring at the uniformed man checking cars through the crossover. A fleet of old buses has just gone past, laden with children being transported through the checkpoint. I know as I crawl toward the stonefaced officials with their signs that I am leaving the prosperous west and re-entering the east.

And I reflect again on the tale of two cities: the west of Christchurch where there was an earthquake that has knocked over a few things, and the east where for most the quake is still happening.

It's not correct to say that the west wasn't affected ... the 6.3 quake was no respecter of address and who it killed, and there is isolated damage over a wide radius. Everyone shares the loss and the trauma of the central city. But here in the east we still have no open shopping centres, heavily chlorinated water, dirt roads, 30 km/h speed limits and bans on using toilets. Something like 7 per cent of children have left schools and are enrolled elsewhere. Eftpos and credit card transactions tell us that just under 35,000 card users are still out of the city. Some suggest the refugee numbers could be as high as 80,000.

There are "idea" workshops and consultation occurring about the future. That's great if your house and lifestyle are unaffected; meaningless for those whose most urgent concern is when they will have a home to live in. Land remediation needs to be done before some areas can be assessed and then paid out or rebuilt. Given these reports are still weeks or months away, meeting to argue about whether some old brick building on Oxford Terrace is saved is, as my sister suggested, "unreal".

There has been a "pledge" for residents to sign to say we'll stay in Christchurch to help rebuild. Opinions vary as to whether this is pledging to maintain your deckchair on the Titanic.

Driving at a snail's pace I go through the repair work, around the closed roads and back home. I live by the river, still a cesspit of mud and junk that was never cleaned out after September and is even worse now.

This loop in the Avon was named "Wainoni" by the Maori - literally, water bend. Perhaps this was a vision of the day when it would become a U-bend full of sewage.

My neighbour Steve's first love is classic cars (he has them regularly stolen from outside his house) but he also has a seemingly incongruous passion for the Avon River.

The only link between the two is that the people who steal his cars hide in the undergrowth by the river and when they've finished with the vehicles they get pushed into the water.

Steve used to walk around the park every day and was complaining about the state of the area. His view is that if this damage was in the west it would have been fixed in a month.

My partner thinks if we were in South Korea the whole city would be fixed in three weeks. I'm not sure the recovery process allows us to cede eastern Christchurch to South Korea, but it does seem appealing some days.

Thankfully, the idea to turn the east into a giant trailer park for five years, by issuing homeless people with free campervans, failed. Only one person took up the offer. While some people in the east may act like trailer trash, we don't want to live it.

When hit by a major tragedy, how soon can we expect things to be repaired? When does whinging become legitimate complaint? When should everyone expect to have their houses and lives back?

CERA (Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority), the new government department, has been welcomed by most people I've talked to - the major debate being whether to pronounce it Sera or Kera.

At public meetings, CERA representatives are talking about helping Sumner to the south, Bexley to the east, St Albans and Merivale to the west-ish and the city centre, making sure the areas with greatest need get fixed first.

One of the biggest issues CERA, the Earthquake Commission, the Ministry of Social Development and health agencies have been concentrating on is winter heating, ensuring houses are warm and people don't freeze.

We're expecting snow this winter. But all this work should help us come back in from the cold.

Sam Fisher also does work for the Red Cross in Christchurch.