WDC observes two minutes of silence for quake victims

“It is a small way to show our compassion for the people of Canterbury who were going about their ordinary lives one moment and whose lives were forever changed the next moment,” he said. 

“We will go about our normal working day and pause in silence at that time tomorrow.”

Mr Cutforth said WDC, like all Councils in New Zealand, has been in close contact with the national Civil Defence network throughout the event, and WDC has offered to make available staff with the skills required by the teams in Christchurch.

“Three of our building compliance staff,  Paul van der Sluis, Paul Ganley and Paul Tomlinson, helped out after the September quake and they departed for Christchurch again last night,” he said.

“They will take part in Operation suburb, undertaking rapid assessments which need to be completed by the end of this week.  The trio have been teamed up with two social workers and an Earth Quake Commission assessor. Their job will be to assess the safety of the physical property and the welfare of any occupants. This assessment will provide information for the next stage of the response and early stages of recovery.”

Mayor Cutforth said the recovery would take a long time and it was quite likely that more WDC staff would be called for in the coming months.

“We will gladly provide any help we can.”

He said he had been inundated by calls from members of the public asking how they could help and making suggestions.

“Our community is enormously warm hearted.  It is exceptional.  My advice to all those who want to help is to listen very carefully to what the people of Christchurch say they need.
 
“Right now they are asking the public not to send goods or food, but to make a donation to the legitimate bank accounts that have been set up.  You can find those on Council’s website.

“Some of these great ideas and suggestions may be better addressed further down the track.”