Digging Christchurch out

of the liquefaction.

Which is fast becoming my most loathed thing.

These are piles of silt (drying liquefaction) from people's gardens,

under their decks,

from inside their garages where it has come up through the concrete.

Heaven knows what is under their houses.

The road has about a foot of liquefied silt on it.

Problem is the silt has come from under the road

and has left under the road hollow.

If you look to the left of this ute there is a hole in the tar seal,

I took this photo while the Willie was helping Maori Wardens

rock a maintenance man's van out of a crater.

People are putting wheelie bins, tires, old carpet

(or new carpet now destroyed)

into the holes to lessen the crash aspect of them.

This little car didn't make it.

I was out on the streets after two days of helping

to organise farmers into teams

 to go dig Christchurch out of the silt.

This is Shona from Fed Farmers briefing a couple of groups.

We were sending them out to Avonside and New Brighton.

They had no idea what they were getting into.

This is Cardrona Place in Avonside.

There were bobcats in front yards,

I have no idea how they got that in there

but the family were just sitting a metre or so away looking dazed

as strangers turned up to clean up the biggest mess ever.

Darfield Rugby Club turned up with shovels

as did another 60 rugby players from North Canterbury clubs.

Monday has soldiers arriving.

We like those groups because they arrive in teams

with their own lunch.

We had 34 teams of at least 20 people each on Sunday out digging.

On the east side of Christchurch most streets have liquefaction.

We drove around the corner to scout more streets that needed help

and we came across this house

The front yard is knee deep in liquefaction,

the boat had been up to it's trailer in concreted silt.

They were trying to get it out with a townie four wheel drive and a bobcat.

Willie, our driver, jumped in with his farm four wheel drive

and with the bobcat lifting the boat trailer

they manoeuvred the boat out onto the street,

they also took the neighbours fence out.

Next door was an older English lady who was watching her husband help.

I went over to chat to her.

She was fine.

They only had a small (relative) amount of liquefaction

on their driveway.

But it was a new concrete driveway

a nice reddy coloured one.

Totally broken up.

Their brick house looks ok

until you look closer and realise that about four bricks up

from the foundation

there is a crack that rings the house.

It's like someone has taken a cake slice

and neatly cut through the house as if it was a cake waiting for filling.

The comment was made on our way home

it's better to have your house severely damaged

then damaged enough to be unsafe but repairable

because after the Sept 4th earthquake

the effort was put into saving houses

and that's a long, long road.

I know people who are now looking for their third house in six months

cause they keep getting damaged.

It's good to help,

to get to care about people in person.

The English lady laughed as we hugged

saying her and her husband had started their married life 50 years ago

on a farm where the loo was a bucket

and now they are back where they began

only then they had power and running water

now they don't.

Thanks to Shona and Carly from Feds, to John and Willie too.

Thanks to Rural Women for feedign us better food than I get at home.

Thanks to all the volunteers,

Val, Ken, Livvie, Sam, Lee, Hayley, Tash and others

who helped with organising the teams.

Thanks to those who arrived with shovels, wheelbarrows,

bobcats and dingos,

with tractors and loaders.

Thanks to those how drove up from Timaru and

over from the West Coast

down from Amberley and Chevoit and Culverden.

Thanks to those who flew from Wellington and Auckland

to camp out at the A&P Showgrounds with no running water

but we have loos that work :-)

There is more to do, lots more.