WITH MORE than 200 people still missing after Tuesday’s earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, the tone of the briefings is becoming increasingly bleak.
Two babies are among the 103 people confirmed dead, while no survivors have been found for more than 24 hours.
However police superintendent Dave Cliff refused to give up hope for the 228 people still unaccounted for. “It remains a rescue operation. There could be people alive, we don’t know,” he said.
Throughout yesterday, rumours of survivors were sweeping the city, said the mayor of Christchurch, Bob Parker. On at least three occasions, stories circulated of fresh rescues under way after contact from people trapped in the rubble, but each proved ill-founded.
Prime minister John Key warned that the death toll was certain to rise, possibly dramatically. “We are very concerned that the death toll may rise much more rapidly than any of us had ever feared,” he said.
“Frankly it looks like a war zone from a helicopter. It’s building after building after building that’s collapsed.”
Police said up to 120 bodies could still be trapped in the collapsed Canterbury Television (CTV) building. More than 80 missing students and staff from the King’s Education College are thought to have been trapped in the CTV building.
Police ruled out the possibility of anyone having survived in the rubble of Christchurch cathedral, where up to 22 people were thought to have been located.
The naming of the dead, expected to begin in the afternoon, was delayed following a request from the coroner.
However, police named four victims, all from Christchurch: Jaime Gilbert (22), Joseph Pohio (40), nine-month-old Jayden Harris and five-month-old Baxter Gowland. One Irishman and two Britons are known to be among the dead.
Three days after the quake, residents continued to leave ruined homes to find shelter with relatives, in camps or further afield in other New Zealand cities.
The worst-affected areas were in the east and southeast, and included Lyttleton, Shirley, Sumner, Redcliffs and New Brighton, which remained without electricity or water. Those roads that remain open are peppered with signs indicating cracks, holes and eruptions. Traffic moves at a crawl.
In the hillside suburb of Mount Pleasant, hundreds of residents have created an impromptu campsite on the large lawn at a primary school, overlooking the battered city.
Robyn O’Brien, with her husband and two children, was among them. She said people had pulled together, bringing camping equipment and stocks from larders and freezers to share. It was difficult though to stay upbeat.
“Every time we go back to our home we think is it liveable, is it not liveable, and today we’re thinking it’s probably not liveable,” Ms O’Brien said. “But you’ve got to stay positive.”
Another resident of the camp, who asked not to be named, said the school grounds had become something of a psychological refuge. She was relieved to be cut off from the news, she said, and could not bear to even look at the local newspaper. “I don’t want to know what’s going on out there. I just want to stay in these tents, in our bubble here,” she said.