Red-zoners unshaken
‘‘We’ll stay here no matter what till the Government comes to the party.’’
Martin Francis
When the Valentines Day earthquake hit Rae and Martin Francis, they could not lean on their neighbours for support because they didn’t have any.
The Bexley couple live in isolation in the residential red zone. Their uninsured home stands alone, surrounded by empty sections. They are red-zone stayers – people who refuse to leave their homes despite the Government’s offer to buy them out.
Sunday’s magnitude-5.7 earthquake may have given them a fright but it has not shaken their resolve to stay in their property.
Martin Francis was in the house by himself when the quake hit.
‘‘The ground rolled and I could see the floors go up and down a bit. I thought ‘we’re in for a big one here’ but all of a sudden it stopped,’’ he told The Press.
When the ground stilled, he went around the house checking for damage.
A few things had fallen and the odd vase was broken but overall the damage was minimal.
‘‘I was hoping that some of the doors which were sticking would close but they are still sticking,’’ Francis said with a chuckle.
He had lived in Papua New Guinea for a while and was used to experiencing strong earthquakes, so it would take more than a 5.7 shake to get him to rethink his decision to stay in his home.
‘‘We’ll stay here no matter what till the Government comes to the party,’’ he said.
He and his wife bought the house for their retirement 13 years ago. They did not insure it as they had no mortgage and had fallen out with their insurance company over the way it dealt with a series of burglaries at their former home.
Until the Government treated them like everybody else in the red zone and offered them a fair price for their property they would not be going anywhere, Francis said.
Red-zone stayers living on Featherston Ave in Kairaki, north of Christchurch, said a lack of damage to their homes after the Valentines Day earthquake vindicated their decision to stay.
Liquefaction had bubbled up in several places next to the road and in the backyard of at least one property. Buildings appeared to have received little or no damage.
Gerry Lonie, 79, who is among about 16 or 17 residents living in the seaside settlement, was watching television when the quake struck. His deaf dog, Sid, was sitting next to him.
‘‘I said, ‘hell Sid, look at it’. Everything was just moving.’’
Lonie, who recently lost his wife, described the shaking as ‘‘violent compared to what we’ve had before’’.
Lonie spent several hours on Monday cleaning up items that had fallen from shelves. Some glasses, crockery and a lamp were ruined. There was no new structural damage to his house.
‘‘It still hasn’t made me want to go away,’’ Lonie said.
Ron Crone, who lives a few houses up the street, said his home had also escaped further damage. ‘‘We’ve got no qualms about staying with the [latest] earthquake.’’
The Waimakariri District Council recently released its redzone recovery plan draft, which said both Pines Beach and Kairaki were unsuitable for long-term development. There was an option for former landowners to buy back their sections but they would be unable to rebuild on them.
‘‘Central government needs to keep their noses out of it and let local government do what they need to do with the land,’’ Crone said.