Hard News: Again: Is everyone okay?
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Lara,
Jane and Sofie, my heart goes out to you. Hope you hear from your family members soon.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I'm in Dunedin - flew out yesterday night - so am afraid I can't do a Whiskey Galore update this time.
No worries. Oddly enough, there's a shitload of good whisky in the town right now -- Dramfest 11 was supposed to start on Friday.
My family OK - house a mess but structurally seems OK.
Good.
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BenWilson, in reply to
The hint to me was that a fire engine pulled up so close behind him it looked like it was actually going to hit him. He never noticed.
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Dismal Soyanz, in reply to
Been glued to the tv and radio and I noticed that but I also saw preceding footage of various reporters from pretty much the same spot and noticed that the lighting seemed odd. Could be a combination of the light from the camera and the depth of field. I was surprised that JK went there but then on reflection the CTV building destruction seemed so complete that it it would be the natural place to go if the PM was to be shown the extent of damage to ChCh.
Little media coverage of the outlying areas - thinking particularly of Sumner where some houses were said to have been buried.
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I don't think John Key was composited onto that background. I think the picture looked un-natural because of fading daylight and the need to artificially light the foreground subject (Key). This meant there were two different colour temperatures at play and the picture looked artificial.
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I thought John Key looked like he was standing in front of a green screen when I saw it on TVNZ. However I think it's very unlikely as that would be the last thing anyone - including the TV crews - would be worrying about. Mostly likely just unusual lighting as Simon points out.
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It's alright, everyone, the American Embassy in Wellington is on to it...
@DavidHuebner David Huebner
After brief mtg with FM McCully to offer assistance, en route with Congressmen to St Paul's to offer prayers.I seriously hope they summoned the USAR teams before that.
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Conspiracy theorists and political vultures can shut up already - this is well above pointscoring. People are fighting for their lives, a city is in ruins, and many people are dead.
I'm really affected by this, and I hardly know a soul there.
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The Student Volunteer Army has reactivated, and they're likely to be a useful outlet for those wanting to help in the next few days. Spread the word (and perhaps add this to the list on the page?).
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Incidentally, wellington airpart billeted all its people.
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I disagree, George, I think I had a valid criticism of the media. As Simon points out, I was probably wrong in my conclusion (although I swear it looked like every other cheap composite I've ever seen). I have whanau down there, not all who are accounted for (and friends for that matter, too).
We view this dire situation through the lenses of various media, and I do not think it inappropriate to question the balance, timbre, or focus of those lenses.
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
I seriously hope they summoned the USAR teams before that.
You mean "offer assistance"? Given that Key said we've been offered USAR assistance by the US and Aus, and accepted, I presume that takes care of what you want to see. Really want to know who else is offering USAR TFs, though. There's a lot of resource out there internationally, and five TFs plus the community teams is really not enough for the current situation.
Speaking of USAR teams, there's a lot of disrespecting of TF1 going on. All the talk is of USAR team (or teams) being flown in from Auckland, which is TF3, but nary a mention of the foundation Task Force from Palmy.
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Just watching the interviews with Key and Parker from 1, and I have to agree with the conclusion that it's legit rather than superimposed green screen. The light levels on the background keep changing as the dust blows around, which plays merry hell with the camera's auto-light settings.
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Little media coverage of the outlying areas – thinking particularly of Sumner where some houses were said to have been buried.
That is bugging the crap out of me. Got friends in Lyttleton and I'd have expected the odd camera shot from a helipopeter - at least - of the suburb closest to the earthquake epicentre.
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TV3's started to get footage in from the suburbs in the last hour or so. Mostly on that massive landslide in Sumner, however.
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Susannah Shepherd, in reply to
Matthew: yes, you're probably right. I just thought Huebner's Twitter feed showed an interesting sense of priorities - and not what I'd expect/hope to see from a NZ diplomat in corresponding circumstances.
Then again on reflection it probably doesn't hurt to take ten minutes to marshal your thoughts and your strength before getting down to what could be a long and emotionally exhausting job.
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Just heard that a dear friend of my Mum's who worked in Relationship Services (they share a building with Canterbury TV) is safe - in hospital with a broken hip and ankle after being rescued from the building. Sorry I don't know about her workmates. Saw something on One News to the effect that people are still trapped in that building.
It is all just so close and personal. The partner of another dear friend in Chch works a lot in the PGC building and was supposed to be there today.
Am still extremely worried about friends in Lyttelton and their children - haven't heard a thing.
+1 to what George said about point scoring. C'mon guys. -
What can we do for David and Jen and the kids? They need what, everything I'm guessing?
How can we help?
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
I just thought Huebner’s Twitter feed showed an interesting sense of priorities – and not what I’d expect/hope to see from a NZ diplomat in corresponding circumstances.
Don't forget that diplomats just relay messages. Getting USAR out of the US requires approval from FEMA, a bloated bureaucracy even before it was subsumed into the ultimate bloated bureaucracy - DHS. So the Ambassador, assuming he knows what USAR capability is available, must first determine that there is an offer to be made. There's no diplomatic egg quite like the diplomatic egg that follows an offer that must, unfortunately, be rescinded because, well, the offerer shouldn't have made the offer because it couldn't be fulfilled.
An NZ diplomat would be in a similar situation were the bureaucracies reversed, though in NZ's case the Ambassador to Washington likely has the cellphone number of the Minister of FAT and the PM and can short-circuit all the proper channels to get an offer available.
Things with Aus are so close that the offer will be PM to PM during a personal, direct phone call. That relationship is not shared with the US. -
Steve Parks, in reply to
It’s worth saying though that TV3 for those of us offshore, has been phenomenal in all this. Every New Zealander I know beyond living beyond the nation’s shores has been sitting glued to one of their various international feeds for hours, mostly ABC.
TV3 is also all over CNN at the moment. CNN are focusing a lot of time on the earthquake and, aside from their own phone interviews and a little analysis, that’s mostly with TV3 coverage.
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Random observations from this afternoon:
I walk into my ten-year-old's school just as the first big aftershock hits. The rugby goalposts are whipping back and forth and suddenly there she is, right in front of me, walking back to her class from the playground assembly point. Never has a hug been more timely.
The sky is abuzz with helicopters. We're on the flightpath of the Westpac Rescue as it shuttles back and forth. Another chopper is carrying a monsoon bucket. Into the city. It's bizarre. Later an Air Force Orion makes repeated low sweeps back and forth.
Ilam and Waimairi Roads are crawling nose-to-tail in both directions. I've never seen them like this before. Neither the driver-courtesy: with much after-you's and friendly waves.
We and everyone we know is safe, as far as we know. We are bracing ourselves: tomorrow as we find out more, this may change.
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I happened to be in Christchurch for the day for work. Still here (at an undamaged work contacts house in Burnside). Have managed to organise a seat on a bus back to Dunedin for tomorrow morning.
I was actually fairly lucky, in as much as we had happened to take a very early break for lunch, and I walked through places that are now very damaged about half and hour before the quake as part of a lunchtime walk. The building I was in when the quake struck is cracked, but was safely evacuatable. -
Sacha, in reply to
David Huebner
He tweeted earlier on that they'd lost visiting high-ranker Richard Armitage - found him later, thankfully. All those international players right in the middle of it must be adding some pressure for the government to perform well.
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Jolisa, in reply to
Andrew, thank you for checking in! Have been thinking about you guys all day, hoping for good news, wondering if we'll need to take a raincheck on that night out... the sense of relief hearing that you are unscathed and together is huge (even as the fear for other people grows).
Ditto to all the Chch people, really. Stay well and safe.
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giovanni tiso, in reply to
Stay well and safe.
Yes. Please.
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