New Zealand reopens no-go zones after quake
Posted: 11 September 2010
1748 hrs


Civil
defence volunteers help with clean-up efforts in Kaiapoi near Christchurch


CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand : New Zealand authorities have lifted the
cordon in the heart of quake-hit Christchurch, one week after a 7.0-magnitude
earthquake rocked the country's second largest city.

And as aftershocks
continued to hit and a state of emergency remained in place in the damaged city,
Prime Minister John Key said he would push through emergency legislation next
week to help with the rebuilding process.

Some 230 people were still
being accommodated in welfare centres on Friday night as the cordon was lifted
but power has been restored to most homes.

"While progress is being made
on restoring services, the pace of restoration is slowing because remaining
outages (are) taking longer to fix," Civil Defence director John Hamilton said.

Key visited some of the worst affected parts of the city on Saturday and
said the government was hoping to push through special legislation to ensure the
reconstruction was completed promptly.

"We're hopeful we'll get
agreement on that legislation by the early to mid part of next week, and look to
transition that legislation through the house," he told reporters.

Christchurch mayor Bob Parker had hoped to open the city centre early
Friday for the first time since the quake hit, but fresh tremors measuring up to
magnitude 4.5 temporarily scuppered that plan.

The cordons, which had
been enforced by police and the military, were eventually lifted late on Friday
evening, allowing residents back into these parts of the city centre for the
first time in a week.

The city of 340,000 will remain under a state of
emergency until Wednesday following the main tremor on September 4, which caused
damage estimated at four billion dollars (2.7 billion US). - AFP/ms

"The city will remain unde a state of emergency until Wednesday" this shows that precautions are taken seriously, i think this ia a very good practice as it could prevent lifes from being in danger. It is always better to be safe then sorry.