CO-ORDINATION OF RELIEF

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24619, 16 July 1945, Page 4

CO-ORDINATION OF RELIEF

Emergency Body In Action READY ASSISTANCE BY ARMY With headquarters at the Southern Military District Command in Hereford street, an emergency committee, representing the Army, the Air Force, the Police, the Public Works Department, the Post and Telegraph Department, and the civic authorities, was established on Saturday to provide communications and services. Information was also broadcast by the committee but the coverage obtained was doubtful, as many districts were without electricity supplies and the messages could be obtained there only on battery sets. Ready assistance was given by the Army, which made vehicles, radio sets, and operators available. The first job undertaken by the signals personnel was the maintenance* of train running by radio on the line from Christchurch to Dunsandel. Vehicles were also made available to Public Works officials to traverse areas to make assessments ox damage. Sets were carried on the reconnaissance vehicles. The Air Force also provided operators and materials for various duties. Yesterday, emergency rations were taken by Army trucks to gangs repairing the power lines to Ashburton and Hororata. Reports as to the depth of the snow, and the condition of power and telegraph lines were requested by the emergency committee, which also asked that it should be advised of local conditions demanding immediate help. A few calls for assistance were received, mostly from near the city. One was from an institution where an electric motor for a pump had broken down. The county engineer was communicated with and pumping was quickly restored. - Instructions for the clearance ol specified roads first was sent out to drivers of graders and road machinery by the committee yesterday. It was 8 long shot that the reports would be picked up, said Major T. A. S. Me* Kenzie, the co-ordinating officer for the committee, but outside Cheviot the advice was picked up by a car radio ana passed on to the grader driver, who met the motorist a little further down the road. “We assumed that some of the country residents would be using battery sets and so ensure a good dispersion of the news and information,” saw Major McKenzie. “The value of tne Army and Air Force wireless commuiu* cations, which have had a most strenuous time, is that they are powered indenendently of supply from the mains. The emergency committee has >** ranged to meet again this afternoon, when it is expected that communications over the whole province wiu have improved to allow of full report of needs and conditions being obtaineaIf any urgent questions arise, the com* mittee will bo called together without delay. The Army heariouarters were one of the few places in the city whij-JJ hod telephone connexions after tW storm and were selec'erl as the h®* for the emergency committee, in i various problems r-re being don’t wire bv the Government departments 80. the Army is giving assistance wnciv* ever called upon.