Responders Book – Amy McGillivray from Bay Times interviews co-author, Pete Seager, about the NZ Volunteer Response Teams Christchurch Earthquakes Deployments.
The Bay of Plenty, Tauranga newspaper (Bay Times) interviewed Pete Seager, co-author of Responders: The NZ Volunteer Response Teams Christchurch Earthquake Story. This gave Pete the opportunity to talk about the book and his deployment with NZ-RT 16 Tauranga Search And Rescue Inc.
The deployment to Christchurch was a significant event for all the volunteer teams. Firstly, this was the first time all New Zealand teams were deployed to one event. Secondly, the trained volunteers put their lives on hold in order to assist the First Responder Emergency Services. Thirdly, they were tasked with a variety of search, rescue and recovery duties. Like the people who were in Christchurch during the earthquakes, the lives of the Response Team Volunteers have been deeply impacted, and changed, by their experiences.
“Writing the book was a way to tell the stories of the people they [the volunteers] encountered, and to give the volunteers the recognition they deserved.”
– Pete Seager, co-author, Responders
Pete Seager: Sound of silence still resonates
FIRST RESPONSE: Pete Seager was one of 10 Tauranga search and rescue volunteers who went down to Christchurch to help in the aftermath of the February 2011 earthquake. He has co-authored Responders, a book about the experience of the volunteers. PHOTO/GEORGE NOVAK
By Amy McGillivray
news@bayofplentytimes.co.nz
It is not the destruction but rather the silence that a Tauranga search and rescue volunteer remembers most vividly about the days after the devastating February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch.
“It was the emptiness. Standing is what was a busy street and there’s not a soul there. The memory I have is of it being completely silent. For some reason I don’t even remember any birds,” Tauranga radiographer Pete Seager said.
“This is a main street in a New Zealand town and it’s just this pile of rubbish.”
Mr Seager, 47, was one of 10 members of the NZ-RT16 Tauranga Search and Rescue team who headed to Christchurch two days after the earthquake.
He and Christchurch woman Deb Donnell have put together Responders, a book of the photos and experiences of search and rescue volunteers around the country, which was released in February.
The Tauranga team arrived in Christchurch about 5 am on the Thursday after the earthquake hit [2 days later]. They were tasked with door-knocking houses to make sure no one was there and marking them as clear. As the days
rolled by they found themselves searching through industrial buildings in the city centre.
“Sometimes buildings outside would look very normal but when you got inside the shelves would be all over the place.”
Writing the book was a way to tell the stories of the people they encountered and to give volunteers the recognition they deserved, he said.
