The severe aftershocks that rocked Christchurch yesterday have renewed calls to reveal the fate of the badly-hit eastern suburbs.
Christchurch East Labour MP Lianne Dalziel said parts of the eastern suburbs "hang in the balance" and people wanted to know if they could rebuild.
"I think people want to know what the answers are so they can basically get on with their lives," she told TVNZ's Breakfast.
"It is really hard to be suffering a setback like this and not knowing what the future holds. We're a pretty resilient lot but you know, it does get harder."
Ms Dalziel was in her Christchurch East electorate when the powerful magnitude 6.0 aftershock hit yesterday at 2.20pm.
It took her nearly two hours to drive home from New Brighton to nearby Bexley.
"There was a lot of liquefaction again...everywhere lots of flooding, streets were closed because of the flooding," Ms Dalziel said.
"The river was very high and I know it topped the banks in parts into Avondale again, having a pretty rough time in there. It's just hard for the eastern suburbs."
She bristled at Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee's comments that it would be "blindingly obvious" which areas could not be rebuilt, saying people wanted answers soon.
"If it is blindingly obvious then people will go with the decisions that the Government makes, but we really do need to have good quality information put in front of us -- frank and timely information, that's what people have been asking for for a long time."
Ms Dalziel said the Government should not wait for a total package involving insurers and other parties, but should work together with the community on a variety options.
"If that means there are parts of the area that can't be rebuilt well then so be it, we will accept that, but we need to have I think a little bit more respect that we can understand what's going on."
Mr Brownlee said the shocks yesterday had "simply exacerbated the damage" from the previous quakes.
Engineers had done a visual assessment of residential areas yesterday, which had largely confirmed the prognosis for damaged areas was "pretty much the same".
"What we will see in the next couple of days is a considerable amount of haste in that decision-making, so it's pretty clear where the areas that are most affected are," Mr Brownlee told Radio New Zealand.
"They're out in the east, they've got varying degrees of damage in them."
Mr Brownlee said an assessment of cliff-side suburbs was planned from next week and would still go ahead.
He said the quakes could add to the costs of recovery for some people, but hasty decisions would also hit people in the pocket.
"Fast decisions will probably leave people in a worse financial position than we're trying to get them into ... but all haste is going into this project."
