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Cabinet to discuss quake response

Cabinet will today meet to get an early overview of the damage caused by the Canterbury earthquake, and Prime Minister John Key says the bill outside private insurance and Earthquake Commission funding will be large.Mr Key surveyed damage caused by the 7.

NZPA
Mon, 06 Sep 2010

Cabinet will today meet to get an early overview of the damage caused by the Canterbury earthquake, and Prime Minister John Key says the bill outside private insurance and Earthquake Commission funding will be large.

Mr Key surveyed damage caused by the 7.1 magnitude quake on Saturday afternoon and said it was an eerie feeling walking around Christchurch and observing families as they took in the scale of the disaster.

"Also you could see they were feeling quite stressed from the night before and a little fearful of the aftershocks that they knew were coming," he told TVNZ's Breakfast programme. There were several aftershocks overnight.

"I know lots of families slept in the middle of the lounge on the Saturday night wanting to be together."

He said Cabinet would today get an update on all the different issues being presented. "And there are some practical micro things happening, for instance, the Ministry of Social Development are contacting all their elderly clients to make sure that people are okay. ACC are contacting those with serious injuries..."

He said there was plenty of damage to infrastructure such as roading and wastewater, and the burden of repairing it would need to be spread.

"It was previously paid for by the ratepayers of the Canterbury region, and quite frankly the Government is going to have to step up and I think wear a majority of that cost, simply because if we don't do that the people of Canterbury have to pay, because they need that infrastructure."

Mr Key said a lot of the cost of damage to buildings would be met by the Earthquake Commission -- up to $100,000 per building and $20,000 for contents -- and private insurance.

However, there were cases where some had heavy damage to their homes yet didn't have private insurance.

Such situations presented a difficult issue and would be part of the Cabinet's discussions today, Mr Key said.

He said from what he had seen, Civil Defence had responded well to the crisis.

"By the time I got to Christchurch it was a very slick operation."

NZPA
Mon, 06 Sep 2010
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Cabinet to discuss quake response
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