A FORMER Huddersfield man has revealed details of the humanitarian efforts being made in the wake of the terrible New Zealand earthquake.

John Costello, who lives with his wife Erika 20km north of Christchurch, has been moved by the relief work being undertaken after the quake, which killed at least 154 people.

And they also took part in a special memorial, a week after the terrible earthquake.

Police have so far pulled 154 bodies from the wreckage and authorities said the death toll could be at high as 240.

More than a week after the earthquake, large parts of the Christ-church area are still waiting to be cleared.

Mr Costello, who emigrated to New Zealand in May 2003, said: “All attention continues to be given to the central city, but it is in the eastern suburbs where most of the damage has been done.

“A week on and most of it still looks like a war zone, but the communities are starting to clean up and rebuild.

“In Avonside, Bexley and Dallington, all badly hit by the September quake, the roads are buried under silt and riddled with cracks.

“Most people do not have power, water or sewerage and only a few Portaloos dot the streets, but here, the residents are busy cleaning.

“Hundreds of volunteers have hit the streets. 3,000 students from Canterbury and Otago Universities have formed the Student Army, as they did after the September quake, and move round from house to house, street to street and suburb to suburb with barrows, shovels and brooms piling all the silt into heaps to be collected by an army of truckers.

“An estimated 1,000 farmers have joined in bringing along their tractors and trailers. People have been collecting and distributing food to neighbours and strangers alike.

“Some houses have become collection points for the food and have now become meeting points for traumatised residents and the army of cleaners.

“The Rangiora Earthquake Express, in a town 30km north of Christchurch, has been formed and every day it cooks hundreds of hot lunches which are delivered by helicopter and are still warm when the recipients get to eat them.

“This is New Zealand. Generosity, kindness and community is everywhere. It is not perfect, but it is a wonderful place to live”.

Mrs Costello said: “We had over 20 after-shocks again yesterday, including two over magnitude 4, both of which were felt by one of our neighbours.

“Everyone’s nerves are becoming very frayed, through lack of sleep and always waiting for the next quake to hit”.

Mr Costello, who used to live in Clayton West, works as an industrial electrician for a plastics manufacturer.

He took pictures inside the firm’s premises, which show the mess created by the earthquake.

Yesterday, across New Zealand, people observed a two-minute silence starting at 12.51pm – the exact time the quake hit seven days earlier.

Mr Costello said: “Almost all traffic stopped, shoppers held hands, everyone at our factory went out to the car park and stood silent with bowed heads.”

Members of a British taskforce have started to arrive in Christchurch to help identify the victims of the devastating New Zealand earthquake.

The disaster victim identification (DVI) team, which includes a pathologist, odontologist and fingerprint expert, will assist experts from New Zealand and Australia in the process, which has been hindered by the catastrophic injuries suffered by many of the victims.

Four Britons are now thought to have been killed in the 6.3-magnitude quake and a further three are believed to have been injured.