Nelson Tasman floods: Civil Defence to assess damage to homes, residents' welfare needs
assessing damage
to homes, and looking at the longer-term welfare needs of flood-affected residents.
The region has suffered significant damage from heavy rain in the past fortnight, including flooding, slips, power outages, road closures, and property losses.
Civil Defence group controller James Thompson said building inspectors would be assessing properties on Sunday and marking those with water damage.
The Motueka Recreation Centre at 40 Old Wharf Road would be open from 10am for people to chat with agencies about their welfare needs, he said.
People needing free meals can get them from Te Maatu wharenui at Motueka High School, from midday until 5pm on Sunday.
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RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Tapawera residents battle to get home after major slips
Some Tapawera residents haven't been able to get back to their homes. Photo: RNZ/Nathan Mckinnon Tasman residents have been working relentlessly to clear major slips and get access to their homes just days after a second storm brought devastation to the region. A chunk of the mountainside has crashed down Wangapeka West Bank Road, near Tapawera. It has brought mounds of dirt over the road, cutting off at least four properties . Aspect contracting Darren Richardson said he was trying to clear it out for residents. "You just bore your way in and make yourself a bench with the digger and just start cutting into it. "You got to keep an eye on what's above you. So if you feel any - see any rocks come down you just get out." He's made a path through to the other side so people can walk through. But further up the road, there's more devastation and the piles of logs, mud and debris makes the road impassable. "A lot of slop from the creeks and trees that have fallen over from the wind. "I've cleared most of it up - just to get a track through - but there's a lot to clean," Richardson said. Jo Shaw and neighbour Brian Lambert in Tapawera, Tasman. Photo: RNZ/Nathan Mckinnon Jo Shaw is one of the residents who lives on the other side of the slip. She has been cut off from her house for days since Friday's deluge. "It's just devastating for everyone I think. I smashed my phone accidentally, I've now got no phone to even try and find out what's going up there. "So I'm using everyone else's phone, can I get through? Is my cat ok? Is the house still standing?," Shaw said. She doesn't know how long she'll be out of her house for. Logs and trees collapsed in the gales and rain, hitting her neighbour's cars and damaging her water supply. "I'm just hoping I can get some clothes, and I can't stay there because my whole water system, pipes, everything has all just been floated away. "So I'm going to have to stay at a mate's caravan." Sections of Tapawera-Baton road have become mud, with small mountains of logs and trees at the sides. Tasman civil defence said 13 teams were visiting flood affected properties to investigate damage on Monday. That included in parts of Tadmore, Rocky River at the Motueka Valley, Dovedale, Baton River and in the Wai-iti area. Tapawera Community Led Development community connector Della Webby. Photo: RNZ/Nathan Mckinnon Della Webby at the Tapawera community centre said residents couldn't drink or prepare food without boiling water. Like in parts of Dovedale, Tapawera Residents were still under a boil water notice, including those on private bores. The level of flooding has made the contamination risk high. "We're supplying bottled water and containers of water at the community centre. So they are available for the residents to collect if they need them. "We are currently working with TDC navigators to source extra water to bring in through the week." Webby said the emotional toll of the second storm has been even more severe than the first. "It's been incredibly hard on the community. The anxiety and emotion of people has been extremely high. "At the first event, a lot of people were just in shock, and now they are starting to crumble." Elsewhere in Tapawera, farms and businesses have been tirelessly clearing out mud, gravel and silt. Hayden Oldham from New Hoplands said "it's back to the start" to clean up their engineering workshop and hops. "Everything we cleaned up has been spread back out and gone through sheds and gardens." He said the workshop had about 300 millimetres of water running through it and it left about the same amount of silt and sand. "Around the sheds it's washed away all of our shed area, washed all the gravel into the hop gardens, got water all through the sheds and into some of our accommodation." He said the company's hop farm in Ngatimoti had been engulfed in a thick layer of silt, logs had taken out the hop posts, which would need to be put back up. He was hopeful the weather wouldn't affect the hops too much. "Hops are real hardy and right now they're asleep in the ground, so I am hopeful they won't get too affixiated. "If we can scrape the worst of the slurry off they should be able to grow through the sand." But he said the clean-up would be costly for businesses and farms, and many people still had insurance claims from the first flood to be sorted. "We've had floods here before but never this bad - and not twice." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
3 hours ago
- RNZ News
As the sea level rises, who will pay? Councils seek answers
Flooding in the Waimakariri district following the 29 April to 2 May rain event. Photo: Supplied / Waimakariri District Council North Canterbury's councils want to know who pays for preparing for climate change as major storms and flooding threatens local communities. Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) has warned a lack of clarity over who pays for measures to protect communities from sea level rise, flooding and weather events could leave ratepayers with a hefty bill. The concern follows the release of a report from the Ministry for the Environment's Independent Reference Group on Climate Adaptation, which raises the question of who should pay. Environment Canterbury is planning to review the Kaikōura flood protection scheme on the Kowhai River. Photo: Supplied / Environment Canterbury Waimakariri District Council chief executive Jeff Millward said his council is beginning work on a climate adaptation strategy as it looks to prepare for the threat of sea level rise and the growing number of severe weather events. For earthquakes and flooding events, the council has insurance through the local authority protection plan, which covers 40 percent and the balance coming from Government or loan funding. But preparing for sea level rise and flood mitigation measures costs money, Mr Millward said. As the risks become more severe, there may be changes to what insurance is available, or even ''no insurance at all''. ''Does it fall back on the ratepayer or the taxpayer? It is a bit more complicated and a lot more discussion has to happen.'' Councils already have clauses in District Plans identifying natural hazards and impose regulations such as minimum distances from the waterline and raising floor levels to 1.5 metres off the ground. ''People like living near the beaches or rivers, but it puts those properties at risk, so there is going to be a lot of modelling work done to identify the risks and develop and array of tools,'' Millward said. Environment Canterbury has working of flood protection across the region, works on the Waimakariri and Kaiapoi Rivers to protect Christchurch and Kaiapoi. Photo: Supplied / Environment Canterbury Kaikōura District Council chief executive Will Doughty said the region's councils are working on adaptation plans, following the launch of the Canterbury Climate Partnership Plan by the Canterbury Mayoral Forum in December. ''One thing is for sure - there is going to be a bill. I think we do need clarity and it is a conversation we need to have. ''I think the steps Canterbury has taken as a region to put that action plan in place has put us in a good position. ''It's a much bigger issue than any one particular district and the more joint action we can be doing the better.'' Kaikōura's pristine coastline faces threats from the sea, despite a coastal uplift following the 7.8 magnitude in 2016. Photo: David Hill / North Canterbury News The recent report warned it may not be sustainable for government buy-outs to continue for properties in at risk areas, with weather events such as those facing the Nelson region expected to become yearly events in some areas. It recommends phasing out those buy-outs over a 20 year period. Adaptation measures, such as flood schemes, sea walls and infrastructure, should be funded by those who benefit, the report advised. On Monday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told RNZ the government will not be able to keep bailing out homeowners after major floods . The Hurunui District Council has completed climate adaptation plans in partnership with its beach communities. It has led to the council buying a $3.8m block of land south of Amberley to prepare for future events. Residents from at-risk communities will be able to secure sections by paying a targeted rate over the next 30 years. The plot of land would be attached to their existing property, so the two properties cannot be sold separately. When the time comes, residents could transport their house to the new section, or build onsite. A new bund is providing some protection to Amberley Beach residents for now. Photo: David Hill / North Canterbury News Council chief executive Hamish Dobbie the issue is complex and councils need some guidance from government. ''Some guidance suggests we should be involved at all. We should only be involved in roads and pipes. ''There needs to be a good sensible conversation about this.'' LGNZ vice president Campbell Barry said the ministry's report has failed to address some concerns previously raised by local government. ''It's good to see the report's sense of urgency. Our submission on climate adaptation in June last year stressed that action is needed now. ''We need to have better policies and frameworks in place to cater for increasingly severe and frequent weather events. ''Local government can't afford to have another Cyclone Gabrielle. The aftermath of a significant weather event like that comes with massive financial, infrastructure and human costs for communities.'' Barry said the lack of clarity meant the burden of paying for adaptation was likely to fall on ratepayers. Luxon said Climate Change Minister Simon Watts had been working to get a bipartisan view on how to deal long term with major weather events. - LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
Uninsured $80,000 digger smashed in Tasman storm
McEnroe and his mangled digger worth about $80,000. Photo: RNZ / Mary Argue Byron McEnroe is counting his blessings despite the complete destruction of an uninsured $80,000 digger. As the storm battered Tasman last week , the torrent of water and slash picked up the massive machine and sent it tumbling down his rural block. The digger cut a path through his property, where only a month ago a friend had been staying in a motorhome. "For the last five years we had an old guy living in a motorhome just here on the other side of the digger, and moved him out about a month ago - pretty happy about that, because I don't think he would have survived," McEnroe said. "This all happened in the dark, that digger would have been coming through the side of his little bus before he even knew about it. So, it could've been worse." It was the second time the Tasman district had been battered by torrential rain in a fortnight. Residents in the Motueka Valley were shell-shocked by the destruction after record rainfall once again triggered a state of emergency. McEnroe fought back tears as he surveyed the damage left by Friday's deluge. "The rain was just unreal, the water and the power of it... it's terrible." He suspected forestry logs from a block up behind his driveway had become stuck in what was normally a trickle of a creek bed - and like in many other parts of Tasman - built up a lake of water behind it. Parrish Hurley next to what was once a "trickle" of a stream. Photo: RNZ / Mary Argue "[It] just exploded and came down in a big hurry." The flash-flood that was released gouged out the earth - 6m deep in some places - and sent his five-tonne uninsured digger spinning 100m downhill in a cascade of silt and debris the rain for hundreds of metres more. "Completely written it off, and I need it now... now more than ever. I don't really know what I'm going to do about it yet, it's got no future there." McEnroe grew up in the valley, and had lived there for more than a decade after returning as an adult. He was still struggling to come to grips with what had happened, and was visibly relieved the carnage was not fatal. The trail of debris that cascaded through McEnroe's property and across the road started in a forestry block up the back. Photo: RNZ / Mary Argue The recent rainfall had sent the whole district back to square one, undoing all the effort and work to repair the damage caused by widespread flooding two weeks ago, McEnroe said. "So much hard work, all just gone - it's worse this time. People's mental health will be deteriorating pretty bad at the moment. That's the biggest worry, but you got to keep your chin up and carry on." Since Friday's deluge, he had been working furiously to repair the driveway to his mother's property just north of Ngātīmoti, after a flash-flood carrying boulders and forestry logs cut off access to her a kilometre from her home. Monday was the first time his mum - who was in her 70s - had seen people in days, McEnroe said. Byron McEnroe and friend Parrish Hurley have spent the past couple of days working to repair the driveway to McEnroe's mother's house. Photo: RNZ / Mary Argue Friend and fourth-generation local Parrish Hurley suspected the clean-up this time would take months, if not years, and the scale of it was hard to comprehend. The last two hours of rain sealed their fate, he said. "The devastation is incredible, when people actually get to see it. It's all very well flying over in a helicopter, but it's nothing like being on the ground and looking at it, and being amongst it first hand. It's unbelievable." Despite the mess in front of him, Hurley said many others were worse off, pointing out a farmer across the road who had lost "half the back of his farm" when the Motueka River burst its banks. "[That] was a paddock, where he used to run his sheep .. and now it's just gone. Totally gone. "It's not going to be a quick fix. People are already on their hands and knees because they're struggling with the economy and everything, and I just don't believe a lot of people have got money left in their pockets to fix things up." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
