ROOF OVER HIS HEAD

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34000, 14 November 1975, Page 1

ROOF OVER HIS HEAD

Help arrived before i 8 a.m. yesterday for a 70-year-old Papanui pen- ■ sioner whose roof was damaged by Wednesday evening’s freak storm. Mr J. E. Marshall, of 12 Moreland Avenue, said that a jobbing carpenter arrived at his home yesterday morning after the carpenter read in “The Press” about his frustrations in getting help. Tne carpenter had replaced all the tiles and tightened wires beneath the roof after conferring with the State Insurance Office. An assessor had arrived last evening, and the repair job would not cost him anything. MANY OFFERS Mr Marshall said he had about six rings offering help after the carpenter had come. He had taken soaked insulation from beneath the roof yesterday, and the insulation would be re-sealed on Monday. “I was buck-shoved from one to another,” he said of Wednesday evening’s attempt to get help. “You would think that the Christchurch City Council would have tarpaulins on hand. There was no Civil Defence emergency, so there was no help.” The station senior sergeant who was on duty at the

police station when Mr ’ Marshall called on Wednes- J day night has objected to Mr Marshall’s statement that it was “stupid” of the police to suggest he call a hire firm to get a tarpaulin for his roof because no-one would have been there. The senior sergeant said that hire services were readily available after hours and it was only a matter of looking. Early yesterday morning, he rang a hire firm with a branch in Papanui and was told they had tarpaulins for hire. The police were heavily committed on Wednesday night, with burglar alarms going off all over the city, the senior sergeant said. “HELP THEMSELVES” “The storm was not going long enough for us to make arrangements for emergency services like tarpaulins, and we had no call-back of extra policemen. “We like to help the public, it is our -job, but we would also like to think they : could do a bit for themselves. "Mr Marshall rang twice, and the second time he got : shirty and threatened to go :to the newspapers. By that time the Radio Rhema tower ' had been blown down, some : powerlines were out, and we i were pretty flat-tack.”