Thursday Friday 25, 2011

Christchurch residents are using the Christchurch Recovery Map website, eq.org.nz, to find out where to buy food and get building supplies, medical supplies and petrol as a clean-up gets under way in the suburbs.

“We’re asking people to tell us where they are and what they see – if roads are blocked, which dairy is open, which Mitre 10 is open, which medical centre, where there are phones working and internet access,” said one of the website’s founders, Tim McNamara of Wellington.

The site has processed more than 140,000 tweets posted on Twitter relating to the quake and many more texts, email and web submissions since it launched on Tuesday afternoon. “We’ve had a diabetic thank us for helping her find a supply of insulin, and parents finding out where they can buy food,” McNamara said.

It’s easy to file a report by texting shortcode 5627 (free on all networks), emailing eqnzfeb@gmail.com, tweeting with the #eqnz hashtag or submitting a simple form on the website. Sign up for an alert for information relating to your neighbourhood.

Those who need help clearing debris or getting errands run can contact the Student Volunteer Army (SVA) through the website at eq.org.nz/volunteer-army.

“We’re handling two types of information,” said Sam Rye of the SVA.

1. Requests for work to be done. Please provide a street address, contact details and general description of the job that needs doing (eg clean up liquefaction)
2. Updates on services and availability in your community (eg ‘John Smith: Hot food available at Frigate in Lyttleton Harbour).

“But please do not send requests for hazardous jobs or for emergencies. If a situation is life-threatening call 111,” said Rye.

More volunteers are welcome and can find out more about the SVA on its Facebook page.
There is also support for businesses on the site and links to accommodation services, TradeMe’s help page, Google’s People Finder and the site is working alongside Civil Defence efforts.

The website, which can now be accessed via the NZ Herald and Stuff websites as well as at eq.org.nz, is being run entirely by volunteers from seven countries with support from a team who ran a similar service after the Haiti earthquake and floods in Queensland, Australia.

Organiser Tim McNamara says the site couldn’t have got so far so quickly without help from sponsors.

“The site has been helped out by so many organisations. Some of the biggest, in no particular order, are Telecom, Vodafone and 2 Degrees for phone support, Catalyst IT for staff, Kestrel Group for expert advice, the google.org crisis response team, Victoria University of Wellington for somewhere to work from and CrisisCommons.org for the software and support.”

ENDS

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