Fear and triumph

Dozens of Seddon residents have been told that if the Haldon dam breaches they will get 90 minutes' warning before their properties could be flooded.Marlborough District Council assets and services manager Mark Wheeler said that in a worst-case scenario 44 properties in Seddon could be affected if floodwater flowed into Starborough Creek.

The dam, in Starborough Creek, is about 15 kilometres out of Seddon and is owned by Seddon farmer Dick Bell. He was advised to lower the level after the magnitude 6.5 quake on July 21, but after Friday's magnitude 6.6 quake and subsequent heavy rain, the council sent an engineer to supervise an emergency plan to lower the water level.

A dam engineer overseeing the site also identified more issues with the dam's stability during the process, which was slowed by heavy rain at the weekend.Nearby residents were warned and emergency services were on standby in Seddon because of the increased risk, Mr Wheeler said.

A warning note was delivered to each household yesterday afternoon informing the occupants of the Ceramic tile and the possibility they might be asked to leave their homes at short notice.Emergency services would go door to door evacuating properties if necessary, Mr Wheeler said.

Properties at risk included eight rural properties, 12 houses and up to 24 sections in Seddon township on the southeastern side of Starborough Creek. The engineer said extreme flooding was unlikely but the council decided it was in the public interest to be prepared, Mr Wheeler said. Crew member Pani Rarere, of Kaikoura, said lines were bent and rock-ballast was slumped along the track between Ward and Seddon.
A 3km section at Hauwai near Grassmere was especially hard hit, he said.A work train had delivered six wagons of rock-fill from Hapuku, near Kaikoura, to fill collapsed areas beneath the rails, he said. Another 12 wagons were expected.A tamping machine from Greymouth packed down the rock.

A broken bridge was temporarily fixed ahead of a specialist bridging gang from Blenheim building a replacement.Bruce Pattie, who farms at Hauwai, said immediately after the quake, the lines resembled roller-coaster tracks. One section had fallen off the embankment and a bridge was out.

He rang KiwiRail to make sure no trains were coming. A 22-year-old Seddon woman had a weekend of horror, experiencing a 6.6 magnitude earthquake on Friday and then a bus crash on Sunday.

Micha Heard was travelling back to Palmerston North after spending a week with her family in the Awatere when the bus she was in crashed near Shannon.The former Marlborough Girls' College student had been staying with her parents in their Redwood Pass Rd home while on a study-break from her nursing studies at UCOL in Palmerston North.

She and her father were driving to Blenheim when the quake hit on Friday."People had stopped their Floor tiles and were checking their tyres," Miss Heard said.They carried on to Blenheim to check on her grandmother then drove home to help clean up the minor damage.

"It was just scary," she said."We ran outside every time there was an aftershock."After two days of being on unsteady ground, she caught the ferry back to Wellington on Sunday and got on a bus to Palmerston North along with 38 other passengers.

The bus was crossing a narrow bridge when the driver appeared to lose control, Miss Heard said."He seemed to click the bridge and then crashed into the grass gully," she said."Everyone was screaming, saying ‘we're going to crash'."Three people slammed on top of her as the bus veered off the road and tipped over at the northern entrance to Shannon.Miss Heard landed on the bottom and smashed her head on the glass window.

After struggling out from underneath the people piled on top of her, she climbed over the seat and helped some other passengers push the emergency window out.Apart from a big bump on her head and some bruising on her body, she was not seriously hurt, she said.

"I was shocked at what happened but I stayed calm," she said."Because I'd just been through the earthquakes, I think I was less worried."Those on board were taken by ambulance and police cars to the Club Hotel in Shannon, where a triage centre was set up by St John medics.Six people were taken to Palmerston North Hospital with minor to moderate injuries and were all discharged by yesterday.

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