Winds spread dust and odour in quake-hit city

A police officer stands guard with a mask on in the days following a 6.3-magnitude earthquake. Photo / Dean Purcell

Face masks are being handed out around Christchurch as strong wind gusts lift tonnes of dust as high as lamp posts and spread the smell of sewage around damaged streets.

The northerly wind carrying gusts of up to 70km/hr was blowing up the tonnes of material displaced by last week's devastating earthquake this morning, Metservice reported.

Its weather ambassador Bob McDavitt said that could pose a health risk to residents dealing with the sanitation problems caused by broken infrastructure.

"There's a lot of sewage embedded in those particles. The wind is basically acting as an aerosol, carrying viruses and bacteria."

He said he expects the health risk to decrease when the wind changes to a westerly direction soon.

"At least that will mean the material will be blown out to sea."

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said face masks imported into New Zealand to combat a potential bird flu pandemic were being distributed to residents.

His advice was that the dust clouds being blown around the city were not an immediate health risk.

But he said the dust was an irritant and could cause problems for those with asthma or other respiratory conditions.

He urged people to wash their hands regularly to improve sanitation conditions in Christchurch.

"Be careful about everything at the moment. You don't take anything for granted. We are not in normal times and sanitation is an issue."

Fire Service commander Russell Smith said Urban Search and Rescue teams working in the city centre had been issued face masks to deal with wind blown dust.

He said the main risk from the weather was the possibility of strong winds knocking down already unstable and severely damaged buildings.

Police said strong winds overnight had meant that conditions were not ideal for rescue teams, with dust being blown around.