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An aerial shot of a flooded farm in Canterbury - Source: ONE News -
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Around 1200 families, including many farmers, are meeting at Darfield High School tonight, hearing the finer details of a package announced today to help out the rural sector in Canterbury.
Finance minister Bill English, Minister of Earthquake Recovery Gerry Brownlee and a host of local officials are speaking at the Federated Farmers earthquake information meeting.
Earlier today rural Cantabrians welcomed the news that a rural recovery organisation had been set up by the government to deal with the problems in the farming sector caused by Saturday's 7.1 magnitude earthquake.
Agriculture Minister David Carter said the great unknown for farmers is the extent of damage to irrigation.
"What we need to do now that the power's on, is slowly test those wells and see whether the aquifers have moved.
"We then need to check the damage that occurs to pumps, to wells, and to underground main lines," Carter said.
"That's one of the very reasons we've set up this rural support group, which will coordinate everybody as we move to the next stage of ascertaining the damage that has occurred out there in rural Canterbury."
Allan Baird, who was instrumental in establishing the Mid-Canterbury Rural Support Trust, has been appointed chairman of the rural recovery organisation.
English said Baird will remain in the region to oversea the programme.
The Finance Minister also said the government will help to speed up the resource consent process for farmers keen to get fixing things on their farm.
Farms in the region, like the Hororata cattlefarm of Paget and Stella Milsom, have been hit hard and the damage could take months to fix.
A new river, just five days old, has weaved its way through it, the water seeping from the Hororata River, which was split in two following the quake.
The Milsoms' farm, where a new lake has also formed, sits right on top of the quake faultline. They say they have been flat out trying to reroute the water back to where it belongs.
"It's been four days of digging so far and we are within two inches of success," says Paget Milsom.
Federated Farmers' president Don Nicolson inspected damaged farms in the region today and says there are hundreds of farmers that need help.
He is welcoming the news that a recovery organisation has been set up, saying it will be of great help.
"That will marshal the troops in the right way, applying solutions where they need to be," Nicolson said.
Read what happened in the meeting here.
