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After another night of aftershocks, earthquake-hit Cantabrians woke to the news today that the cordons in Christchurch's CBD would remain for the time being.
"It's our intention to relax the cordon as soon as possible," said Civil Defence controller Michael Mendonca.
"However we have chosen to take a cautious approach at this stage to ensure public safety,"
The situation was being reviewed continually and the cordon remains bounded by Worcester, St Asaph, Madras and Colombo streets.
The latest aftershock in Canterbury measured 4.5 and 4.6 on the Richter scale, and struck shortly after 7am.
The quakes, 20km west of Christchurch and 20km south-east of Darfield have been widely reported on the GNS website and reported as "strong" in Christchurch.
This morning's aftershocks came on the back of a 3.9 aftershock with a focal depth of 4km and a 4.3 shortly after midnight.
The Press today reported that one side effect of Saturday's 7.1 earthquake and the many aftershocks had been a record number of heart attacks.
David Smyth, clinical director of cardiology at Christchurch Hospital, said patients were saying when the quake hit they got pains and every major aftershock had triggered more.
The heart unit usually had about 50 beds for Canterbury patients as well as taking transfers from Ashburton, the West Coast and Timaru.
Yesterday morning there were 68 cardiology patients in the hospital, after a record 77 on Monday.
Dr Smyth said the service usually dealt with two or three heart-attack patients a day, but since Saturday had been seeing eight to 10 daily.
"It's undoubtedly due to the quake. It's well documented that natural disasters do this. It's not people panicking, just the sudden surge of adrenaline."
Adrenaline damaged the inside arteries of the heart, creating blood clots that caused heart attacks, he said.
While generally the quake victims have been respectful of government ministers visiting their patch, but the tension started to show at a farmers' meeting in Darfield, west of Christchurch last night.
Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee and Finance Minister Bill English faced questions from a 300-strong crowd, including the issue of compensation for cracks in their paddock, which are not covered by either the Earthquake Commission (EQC) or private insurers.
Farmer Mal Arnold asked the ministers to give the sector some commitment towards helping solve the issue.
"Talking about us keeping the economy going, it's pretty hard when half your fencing and half your paddocks have been destroyed," he said.
"Why don't you guys put your hand up, give us some securities so we can go forward, get stuff done. That's what we need."
Mr Arnold said cracks on his Darfield farm were in some cases more than 1m deep and 75cm wide.
The ministers said they would talk about a possible resolution but would not commit to providing any funding towards those affected.
A rural recovery organisation is being formed to deal with problems arising from the earthquake.
It's part of a focus by authorities to move into the recovery phase, with a building recovery office operational in Christchurch from Monday, while a business website, www.recovercanterbury.co.nz, has been started as a one-stop shop for all business support issues.
The Christchurch, Selwyn and Waimakariri districts are all forming recovery groups.
Yesterday officials in Kaiapoi gave a grim account of the tough job faced there.
"While we are doing everything we can to restore services as quickly as possible, the broken pipes we are currently fixing will ultimately need to be replaced," Civil Defence controller Bruce Thompson said.
"More large scale work will be needed to replace the pipes and mains, which mean there will be ongoing disruption for these communities for some months, and in some instances years, before our sewer and water systems are completely renewed."
officials have warned it could take months, if not years, for the town of Kaiapoi to recover.
The pain in the North Canterbury town was exacerbated yesterday by news that its New World supermarket will have to close because of damage, leaving 86 people out of work.
New World's owner, Foodstuffs New Zealand, and the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce are working to find them all new jobs.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said every house in the city should have water by the end of the week, but there were problems with wastewater in some areas.
Portable toilets have been installed in streets where needed.
Kaiapoi's town centre opened yesterday for the first time since the quake, but a curfew remained in place last night.
Civil Defence controller Bruce Thompson said it could be years before the town's shattered sewer and water systems were completely restored.
Nearly 400 homes in and around Kaiapoi are under restricted access or considered unsafe.
All Blacks captain Richie McCaw, Brad Thorn, Kieran Read and Corey Flynn have been enlisted in a campaign that will advertise where people traumatised by the quake can ring to get help.
Wallabies coach Robbie Deans hails from Canterbury and spoke about the disaster yesterday.
"The great thing is there's no human cost. Under those circumstances it tends to galvanise people, I'm sure the community will respond strongly," he said.
"My son is still in Christchurch. He's good, he was pretty relaxed in the first instance, I think he realises the gravity of it now."
New Zealand coach Graeme Henry, whose 94-year-old mother lives in the city, said it had been tough preparing for the test with the quake aftermath in the background.
"It's been a horrendous experience, a very scary situation for a lot of people. There's a lot of people from Canterbury in this rugby team. They're apprehensive, they wonder if they should be home instead of here. That's been difficult."
So are the All Blacks playing for Canterbury this weekend?
"I think we're always playing for those people, but there is an extra significance this weekend," Henry said.
- NZPA
