Govt in charge as new jolt hits city

The bell of the Cathedral lay forgotten yesterday as emergency workers dealt with the emerging humanitarian crisis. Photo / Getty Images

Christchurch was last night slammed by its biggest aftershock since the day of the devastating February 22 earthquake.

The 4.8 magnitude shake, at 7.34pm, came as the Government prepared to take control of the disaster response, sidelining mayor Bob Parker and the city council. It was followed by three smaller aftershocks within 80 minutes.

There were few reports of damage from the 4.8 aftershock - a fallen chimney, a burst water main, goods falling from shelves and an online report of liquefaction in Linwood.

The greater impact was on nerves, as military helicopters roared into the air to investigate.

The flood of people quitting the city to escape the country's worst-ever humanitarian crisis seems set to continue, and the Government, acting under emergency regulations, will step in and take full control of the disaster response.

Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee told the Herald on Sunday the new centralised structure would punch through the red tape and co-ordinate work being done by other organisations.

"We need something that can move a lot faster than what we have been doing," Brownlee said. "That requires a lot of changes to these legal niceties."

The number of people without homes, power or water has easily surpassed the devastation of the 1931 Napier earthquake. An estimated 60,000 have already left their homes, and many will not be able to return. Plans are under way for tent and campervan cities to house the homeless and residents who refuse to leave their homes are being "encouraged" to get out.

Disaster officials were yesterday told their focus must shift to the people in the suburbs, not the buildings in the city centre.

Residents have food, access to water tankers and an increasing numbers of portable toilets. But their energies are consumed by living day-to-day, many in ruined houses considered too unsafe to have electricity reconnected.

Many still have no running water and getting it connected again could take weeks. Getting the sewerage safely functioning could take months.

Until last night's aftershock, the day had been one of relatively good news for Christchurch. Authorities were preparing to shrink the cordon around the central business district and search and rescue workers and firefighters dug through the collapsed rubble of the ChrictChurch Cathedral tower to discover there were no bodies buried underneath. Police had thought 22 people had been trapped beneath falling masonry.

Brownlee promised the Cathedral, Catholic basilica, Provincial Chambers and Art Centre would be rebuilt, but said other old buildings would be demolished tomorrow if it was up to him.

"While they are part of our past history, they have no place in our future history."

Now, it is the "immense" task of rebuilding the suburbs that Brownlee is determined to undertake - and he said it dwarfed the work needed in the city centre. He pledged to announce, by March 18, a new structure to speedily manage the rebuilding: "The business-as-usual approach is not going to work."

He said the process happening before the February 22 earthquake was not fast enough - and now the problem was 10 times the size.

Engineers and private sector construction managers have spoken critically of the approach adopted by Christchurch City Council, described as slow and bureaucratic. Labour MP Lianne Dalziel - whose electorate is among the hardest hit - was more blunt still. "I'm over the council. They're incompetent."

Most of the response has been run by National Civil Defence controller John Hamilton. He will go to the eastern suburbs for the first time today to see the damage first-hand.

New Recovery Assistance Centres opened yesterday to provide people with information on how to get help.

Hamilton said: "We grossly under-appreciated the scale of the damage in suburban areas. The scale of the operation is so big it is a challenge to provide these services for so many people."