One year on

Two minutes past midnight November 14, 2016 seems both a life time ago, but at the same time it only seems like yesterday.

The memories of the following weeks, now turned into a year, are both a blur, and still vivid, crystal clear, and indelibly fixed in the mind.

The correct title for what is commonly referred to as the Kaikoura Earthquake, is the ‘Hurunui, Kaikoura Sequence’.

Starting in the Leslie Hills district near Waiau, it sequentially moved north and east, triggering multiple fault ruptures, (approx. 22 separate fault fractures) running out to sea off the coast near Kekurangu and touching the south east corner of the North Island.

This earthquake destroyed community water supplies, roads and bridges, it destroyed many homes in our villages, it destroyed community infrastructure much valued by the local people and critical for a fully functioning community.

Huge damage was inflicted on the land, farm infrastructure, homes and buildings all across the affected remote rural areas.

The first anniversary is a time to reflect back on the event, but more importantly to focus on the opportunities presented to us into the future, and to contemplate and focus our energy on the positive progress of our Recovery.

I am privileged to be part of the strong and caring largely rural community of Hurunui which has just journeyed through nearly three years of one of the toughest droughts on record, this was declared a medium scale event, and we have now journeyed through what I understand is the most violent earthquake on record, this necessitated a Civil Defence Emergency declaration.

However, adversity and natural events are common to mankind across the globe and have been forever. Natural disasters and emergency events are more common and frequent than people understand, this beautiful country was formed by these natural events over time, and this event was just part of that ongoing process.

While disasters are a normal part of life, every event is unique, every event requires a unique response, and every event requires intimate local knowledge to enable an appropriate response, sensible decision making, and a successful recovery.

I am filled with pride at the way my community has responded and taken care of itself over the last three challenging years, particularly the last 12 months, and while I am quick to acknowledge that some of our people are still dealing with severe challenges and stress from both events, and will be for some time to come, I believe that the overall spirit and morale of our community is amazingly high.

Our strength, resilience, and determination to deal with the trauma of the earthquake, especially on our young people, the loss of property, loss of income, to cope with less than ideal living conditions, continue to operate their farms and business with damaged or destroyed facilities, or loss of trade, has shown the true strength of character of our people.

We continue our pledge to walk alongside those in our community experiencing grief and loss, and with those who need a helping hand and advocacy for their personal situation, we have in place a number of people to deliver this promise and to work alongside our fantastic permanent community networks and entities who are always there, day in day out, taking care of our people.

Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to once again express how extremely grateful we have been for all the assistance that we have had, and continue to receive from all over the country, for both events.

We do live in an amazingly generous and caring country, for that we are so grateful.