Chinks in the monolith

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33516, 23 April 1974, Page 16

Chinks in the monolith

The Christchurch Central Police Station, huilt for ?3m last year to withstand major catastrophes, so far this year has been unable to cope with smaller upsets — power cuts and street floodin". The station was de«i?ned to stand up sharp earthquakes and atomic blasts. It has a built-in ?in, ;»smic gan between v a’ls ’nd the onerations room, in rhe basement, is surrounded bv concrete. "he precautions have fa’ sig re«ts in the last five weeks—a total power cut on

March 24 and the flooding in the city a week ago. The power cut. advertised several days in advance, was divided into two hour-long periods The police generator worked satisfactorily during the first hour and then failed to stan for the second. The ©Derations room and cel! block wee plunged into darkness and radio communi~a»ion " irh natml cars was rut. The Lyttelton station was tn take nv er contrn 1 for Christchurch. Workmen rook several davs tp rpnair t* , e generator. nowered hv a VI2 motor and big enough to sttonlv considerably more e'“ctricity than the sta*«on needs. During last week’s flood-

ing. the station was one of the first places the fire brigade was called to pump out. The cell block and watchhouse were flooded—up to three or four inches in places —and only towelling placed around the operations room door prevented water entering there. No prisoners were in the cells. Pumps worked to canacitv to clear out the hundreds of gallons. but the floods completelv surrounded the starion and the water kept coming in at the same ra*e or faster than it was pumped out. A moat up to knee height surrounded the Hereford S’reet entrances to the station. and Durham Street, on

jthe other side, was almost completely under water. I Superintendent G. E. Twen■tyman, acting head of the (Christchurch police district, (said yesterday that'the police were worried about drainage ■ around the station. I “There was only a short ! block preventing the water I from draining into the Avon ißiver instead of into the ipolice station. There would (not have been such a flood lif the culverts had been able Ito cope ” he said. Mr Twentvman said the l pumps in the cell block (worked well. “Floods of this ■ size come only once in 50 vears. and we’do not think it necessary’ to buy bigger ones,” he said.