Community rallies around in police officer's street

After several days of living in what felt like a lake of silt and water following the Christchurch earthquake, a New Zealand Police officer was greeted by an army of volunteers who came to clean up the mess.

Senior Sergeant John Robinson, who lives in Parklands, had his spirits bolstered after working long hours when, yesterday morning, 150 Student Army Volunteers came around the corner and began cleaning up his street.

"The whole street had been a lake, which was slowly starting to drop and it was a sensational feeling when, all of a sudden, tons of people came in and started shovelling up the mud and water. Within a couple of hours it was cleaned up."

Mr Robinson says the street, which has about 60 houses in it, had been severely affected by liquefaction and many of the neighbours could not walk around to see each other due to the amount of silt and water.

"It was a lovely day for the street and shows some great community work. At the end of the clean-up a local minister and residents said a prayer and we enjoyed some food brought in from Rangiora."

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