Council sends more personnel to help with earthquake recovery

ROTORUA 13.09.10: Three more Rotorua District Council (RDC) staff and a Rotorua Civil Defence volunteer are in Christchurch helping out with community welfare needs as part of the Canterbury earthquake recovery effort.

RDC’s emergency management coordinator Pauline Hitchcock, community policy & resources manager Ann Esler, community safety projects officer Amy Royston, and civil defence volunteer Gisella Burt flew to Christchurch on Sunday in response to a request from the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management's National Crisis Management Centre.

Council building officer Glen Marjoribanks travelled to Christchurch a week ago to help assess hundreds of damaged buildings and returned to Rotorua in the weekend.

Mrs Hitchcock says her team’s roles will involve accompanying building inspectors around the city’s affected areas and offering welfare support as building damage is assessed.

“It’s a daunting but exciting prospect and we’re all keen to play our part in supporting the unfortunate Canterbury community.

“There’s also the added opportunity of being able learn from these experiences so if a natural disaster of this nature struck Rotorua we’d be better prepared to deal with it.”

The group will return to Rotorua later this week.

Rotorua District Council also consider any further requests for assistance that may come from Canterbury and these would be assessed against the needs of maintaining Rotorua’s own infrastructure and services, and the council’s available manpower.

[ENDS]

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