Eerie walk in red zone

The 53-strong Central District Urban Search and Rescue team is home after a month of duty in Christchurch and Japan. After the 12.51pm quake struck Christchurch on February 22, an initial team of four flew down that same day from Ohakea Air Base, walked off the plane and straight into what had been the CBD. After just three weeks on the ground in Christchurch, an 8.9 earthquake hit the east coast of Japan on March 11. The same initial team of four from Wanganui left Christchurch for Japan and 10 days of freezing temperatures, snow and ice, mass graves and misery too awful to describe. Reporter LIN FERGUSON and photographer STUART MUNRO talked with members of the Wanganui USAR team this week
WHEN the tough types of the central Urban Search and Rescue team strode into the shattered centre of Christchurch, they found unfinished meals on restaurant tables, toppled vases of flowers and tipped-over wine glasses lying around.
Shards of glass were strewn across the ground but, in some shop fronts, cheap and nasty souvenirs had survived and were still on display.
Now the team is home in Wanganui where hugs are being dished out from fellow fire officers, as well as resounding slaps on the back.
The weirdest experience for most, who lived in tents in Latimer Square in the CBD's red zone, was walking through the city at night.
"It was eerie ... like a ghost town ... there was nothing, no people, no noise, but you could see where people had been ... what they had all run from," said team member Aaron Summerhays.
He likened it to the post-apocalyptic movie I Am Legend, an example of the "last man on earth" story.
"People from home would ask us how the local people were doing, and we have to say, 'We don't really know, because we never see anyone in the streets'. They were all gone. The streets were empty."
But an army of volunteers was cleared to go in and look after the rescue workers. Then a large group of Exclusive Brethren appeared, put up a tent, brought in cookers and set to work making mountains of food.
"They kept coming up to us with plates of beautiful hot food all day and through the night."
Baking was sent in every day from all over New Zealand. Everyone was focused on Christchurch.
Team leader Bryce Coneybeer said people's goodness had shone out.
"It's the most wonderful thing I've ever experienced ... people really coming together and caring about each other."
The team agreed that, before the quake, some people could moan and be noncommittal about everything and everyone.
"But this terrible disaster has really brought out the best in everyone ... really opened your eyes, you know, and restored your faith in human nature."
Even though the team had trained for every type of urban disaster, they found Christchurch deeply disturbing.
They will never forget it: the smell, the dust, the wreckage, the utter dejection and misery of a city that lost so much in a heartbeat.
"That's what's so frightening. It happened that fast."
The central districts USAR team (response central), based in Palmerston North, was the first USAR team formed in New Zealand, Mr Coneybeer said. That was in 1995 and he was there at the start, as was his fellow team member, Ross Whetton.
Emergencies occur every day in New Zealand. They generally involve risk to few people at any one time and are dealt with by police, Fire Service, ambulance and medical services.
But, always, there's the possibility of something far more severe happening, meaning the daily staff of other emergency services wouldn't be able to cope with the scale of events.
New Zealand's search and rescue rotations vary according to the scale and type of emergency.
Huge, urban and disastrous? In comes USAR, trained and equipped for anything. Quickly finding and rescuing trapped people is their main brief.
The entire New Zealand team felt Christchurch had been the most "traumatic" job ever, Mr Coneybeer said. But everyone adopted a stoic "chins up" approach.
"No one thought of sleeping for the first three days. It was straight in and keep working, trying to get as many people out as we could."
Even constant aftershocks didn't really bother them, just becoming part of the experience.
"Well, one bothered me," one team member said. "But that's because I was at the top of a very shaky six-storey building. I just stood very, very still, waiting for it to stop, and hoped the building didn't fall over."
Some of the team were in Christchurch after the first quake in September. The big difference this time was the loss of lives.
For Mr Coneybeer, the devastation of Christchurch was mind-numbing.
"There's so much to still do there for those people ... it's endless."
After the team's three weeks of tireless effort and giving it their all in Canterbury, a force 8.9 earthquake and tsunami obliterated the east coast of Japan on March 11.
Four of the team flew out to Japan immediately
"There was no question about going. The Japanese USAR team had come to Christchurch to help us and they were just amazing. We needed to now help them."
Two days after the Japanese quake, the rest of the 53-strong NZ team headed there.
Men from Wanganui were with them: Mr Coneybeer, Mr Summerhays and Mr Whetton.
They arrived in Japan with 17 tonnes of equipment ... 60 cubic metres of it.
The load included food ration packs, water, tents, bedding, toilets and showers.
Straight off the plane they were faced with a 14-hour drive along closed motorways with drivers who didn't speak English.
It was the emptiness that floored them.
"There was nothing" said Mr Whetton. "It was all gone. It's one of the most frightening sights I've ever seen."
"Yeah, it's like something in the world has come unstuck ... something has broken," Mr Coneybeer said.
Living under canvas in temperatures of minus 17C, eating ration-pack food, it was a seriously tough assignment.
And seeing their families on arrival home last Sunday had brought emotions to the surface.
But while it was so good to be home, life for them will always be different now.
Another earthquake, tsunami, volcanic eruption, floods, another large-scale disaster, and the team will be back in black overalls, tying on their working boots and racing into action as fast as they can get there.
THE FACTS
Other volunteers who went to Christchurch from Wanganui included:
Red Cross: 11
St John Ambulance: 10
Salvation Army: 8
Wanganui District Council spokeswoman Sue Dudman said that, as well as assisting on the ground in Christchurch after both its earthquakes, the council had provided help in a number of related areas.
The details include:
Barry Thomas (building control officer) went to Christchurch after the September earthquake. Bill Leslie and Peter Tantrum (building control officers) and Therese Back (environmental health officer) went to Christchurch after last month's quake.
Alan Perfect and Simon Bloor assisted with logistics at the National Crisis Management Centre in Wellington after last month's quake.
Thirty-eight people were organised into 20 shifts over 12 days (average five people per shift) to assist at the call centre based at Horizons Regional Council in Palmerston North.