Civil Defence hits back over handling of storm

Many in the wider Canterbury region are still without power and telephones. Picture / Simon Baker

Canterbury's civil defence authority is defending its handling of last week's paralysing snowstorm as Prime Minister Helen Clark wades in and hundreds of households enter a second week without power.

The "weather bomb" that hit Canterbury a week ago yesterday brought heavy snowfalls down to sea level, closed roads throughout the region and brought down dozens of power and phone lines.

Soldiers and Army vehicles were used to get relief to stranded residents. About 1700 households in Mid-Canterbury and South Canterbury are still without power and may have to wait until next week as more than 200 electricity lines staff work to get it restored.

Light snow has fallen in Canterbury since Sunday and forecasters have warned of more snow down to 200m tomorrow in affected areas, keeping civil defence staff on their toes.

Helen Clark, appearing yesterday on TVNZ's Breakfast programme, said help would have got to people faster last week if a state of emergency had been declared. "They [Canterbury Civil Defence] did not declare a state of emergency, they were managing it as they saw fit. Now I could see there were some issues and central government help really did need to be picked up and frankly I think the military offer could have been picked up a couple of days earlier."

But Canterbury emergency management planner Jon Mitchell said declaring a state of emergency would not have made any difference.

"Making a declaration doesn't somehow immediately make massive resources available.

"All a declaration does is provide controllers ... with a range of powers that they don't have otherwise. There has been no need to requisition property, or to prevent people from doing things, or to require permission for emergency services to enter premises."

Mr Mitchell said Helen Clark might have been simply reflecting a view held by some South Canterbury householders affected by the storm.

"As it became clear through into Tuesday that there was going to be a significant need, particularly in the hill country ... the wheels were put in motion on Tuesday to move towards making [defence forces] available."

South Canterbury farmer David Williams and his family were still without power yesterday.

Work began yesterday to repair downed power lines and poles near his Lake Opuha farm, and he hoped to have electricity by the end of the week. His family were relying on a borrowed generator and a log fire for cooking and heating water.

"The biggest thing is access and lack of communication without the phone on for three days," Mr Williams said.

"It's back to living by the hours of daylight. There's no staying up to 11pm to watch television. You just have to look on the bright side. Whatever the ramifications down the track, you just have to deal with them."

The Ministry of Social Development had set up a helpline to provide welfare support to those suffering from the effects of the storm.

"There may be [financial support] in some cases, but predominantly it's about their social wellbeing, their mental wellbeing, while they are struggling through," Mr Mitchell said.

Telecom said about 1000 Canterbury customers still had disconnected or disrupted phone lines. Up to 50 staff had been working to repair several hundred phone lines a day.