Quake recovery snag

She says farmers on the inland road to Kaikoura are frustrated by some decisions and actions of CD staff. While the permit system has merit, the strict and inflexible way it’s being applied shows CD people lack understanding of farmers’ needs.

For example, a farmer who lives on the road but whose farm’s location is before the danger area was not allowed to go home.

People trying to get their businesses back to normal are often unreasonably prevented from doing this, Milne says.

Feds has people on the ground in the area trying to find out the plight and needs of farmers. But Milne says the state of the inland road is causing big problems.

“Farmers urgently need the road open so those with munted cowsheds can get their cows out. They want them gone and they have places for them to go, which is good, but [holdups by CD people] are frustrating, showing how vulnerable rural people are.

“At present farmers have no idea when they can get their stock out. Some have got stock onto other nearby farms. There are also big milkings taking place as cows from farmers with damaged dairy sheds are milked on farms with cowsheds up and running. There is also stress on cows having to walk longer to be milked.”

Milne reports problems getting food to farmers, and fuel rationing is affecting rural people. For example, food intended for farmers was unloaded in Kaikoura instead of being sent to rural destinations. And fuel rationing is discouraging rural people from driving to Kaikoura on the off-chance food or supplies would be available.

“We had a big food parcel sent from Invercargill by farmers and locals; they banded together to organise 34 pallets of food and supplies for farmers. We finally managed to get this flown to the right people but it took longer than necessary.

“While we seem to be able to get things onto a convoy or boat, they get off-loaded and people pick it up and cart it into Kaikoura and it doesn’t get to the right people.”

Milne says rural people now seem to have basic necessities, but town people don’t seem to see the rural dwellers’ needs. For example, there is a perception that country people can kill a sheep to feed dogs.

“But they don’t appreciate that some rural people still haven’t got freezers working so the dog tucker would go off quickly. And don’t forget, not every farmer has sheep.”

The immediate issue for farmers is restoring their infrastructure, which for some will take many months. When the after-shocks stop, hill country farmers can start repairing fences and rounding up straying stock.

Farm tracks and stock water systems are high on the agenda, as are family homes, many of them destroyed; some people are living in temporary accommodation.