Tears flow as Christchurch remembers quake

As families of the 185 people killed in the New Zealand earthquake marked the one-year anniversary of the disaster yesterday, signs of a city still broken were all around them.

Hundreds of wrecked buildings in Christchurch are still waiting to be torn down so reconstruction can begin in earnest – many of them within sight of the ceremony at Latimer Square.

The slow pace of recovery is drawing criticism from residents and developers as it wears at the reputation of Mayor Bob Parker, who was praised in the days following the quake for his leadership and for calmly articulating the pain and frustration many were feeling.

“There are many unknowns, there are questions still to be answered, suburbs to be rebuilt and a city to be rebuilt,” Parker said at a ceremony later yesterday in the city’s North Hagley Park. “We’ve had our differences, creative and otherwise. But that is not who we really are.”

Yesterday was a day of reflection amid what has become a battle between city leaders and many Christchurch residents and developers.

More than 10,000 people stood in silence, some in tears, at the park while police officers and firefighters read out the full list of victims. That was followed by two minutes of silence at 12.51pm, the minute the magnitude-6.1 quake struck.

The earthquake destroyed thousands of homes and other buildings, causing $25 billion in damage.

Downtown is still a wasteland. About 1,400 buildings there were irreparably damaged, and many still stand. Basic infrastructure like the sewerage system has not yet been repaired and vital decisions about where to put major structures in a new-look city are incomplete.

Many now question whether Parker and council members have what it takes to lead the city through the rebuild.

Earlier this month, several thousand Christchurch residents took to the streets, demanding the mayor, council members and senior officials resign.

Parker and council members unveiled a draft downtown plan last August. It included terraced housing and a new light rail system. Critics said it was stuffed with unrealistic pet projects.

Despite the concerns, residents have remained in the city in numbers that have surprised many. When Statistics New Zealand measured the population of Christchurch four months after the quake, it found the population had declined by just 2.4 per cent, to 368,000, despite the loss of more than 5,000 homes.