The tragedy of the Red Zone

This sums up one of the tragedies of the earthquake.

This well kept little brick house was not damaged in the earthquake. However apparently the land may be as the house has been Red Zoned. The land this house is on may not be damaged either but land around it is. This means it must be demolished.

If you had no insurance, you could end up with an undamaged house, that must be demolished, and you will get at the very most half the value of it in 2007. Potentially you could get nothing. Even with insurance most people lose money.

These houses will be demolished because the Council with the Government's support does not want to continue to provide services (electricity, sewer, water etc) to these houses.

The people who live in this house are protesting - Gerry - that's Gerry Brownlee the Government Minister who is in charge of this debacle, along with others.

The sign reads:
2 world wars
2 world cups
2 earthquakes (although now we've actually had nearly 14,000!)
2 fact sheets (these fact sheets are put out by the Earthquake commission and are generally useless)

VS 1 jellyfish with an ipad (this is a reference to the generally untrained people who decide the fate of homes and are employed by EQC). There is virtually no right of appeal unless through the courts which is staggeringly expensive.

I just feel so sorry for these people - don't know them, but their story is the story of so many caught up in something unimaginable with no control over their lives.

The endless small unseen insignificant but disastrous to the people involved tragedies that are the aftermath of the earthquakes.

And I've just seen Firehorsemias blip for today - read it here and just feel so sad for her