Red Cross help

Press, 30 January 1984, Page 1

Red Cross help

Fourteen Christchurch volunteers from the Red Cross Society arrived in the flood-stricken area early on Saturday. They were employed on general relief and welfare work in the town of Otautau in Wallace County before moving to Invercargill yesterday. Four of the team returned to Christchurch last evening but it was not known when the remaining volunteers would finish, said the society’s secretarymanager in Christchurch, Mr John Mahoney. Catering caravans have been sent by the society from Timaru and Dunedin. The Armed Services sent about 160 servicemen to Invercargill to support the Civil Defence and police operations. Many road blocks are being manned by servicemen who are also providing a back-up for police in case of looting in Invercargill shops. People wanting to get back to their homes before health and electricity inspections have been made are being stopped at road blocks along with sightseers. A Royal New Zealand Air

Force Iroquois helicopter flew from Tekapo to Invercargill on Friday evening. A second Iroquois, from Wigram air base, arrived on Saturday morning. By midday yesterday the helicopters had made 43 sorties throughout the flood-af-fected district. They were backed by a 20-man support team. Spares for the helicopters were air-dropped at Ascot Park racecourse after the flooding of Invercargill Airport. The crew of one helicopter had flown from an exercise at Tekapo. It had worked 16 days without a break before beginning tasks including the ferrying of critically ill patients, security inspections, evacuations, and the transporting of police and firemen. At 1 a.m. on Saturday the Iroquois was used to take the critically ill victim of a car accident at Riverton. Territorial soldiers assisted in the evacuation of the Collingwood and Grasmere areas on Friday. No decision has yet been made on scaling down the assistance of the Armed Services in the area.