Flooded, but they’re still at work
Despite their houses being potentially ruined by last week’s flooding, some kiwifruit packing staff are back at work at the Eastpack packhouse in Edgecumbe.
Operations manager Phil Karl said about 30 residents worked at the company’s Edgecumbe plant. Some had decided to come into work on Friday morning because there was little they could do about their homes.
‘‘We’ve put no pressure on them but they wanted to come in,’’ Karl said.
Meanwhile ANZ will assist farmers with a package of measures including suspending loan principal repayments; waiving fees on restructuring loans necessary due to extreme weather; waiving fees for term finance and investments; providing access to term deposits with the usual stand-down period; and providing access to discounted short-term funding.
ANZ relationship manager Jason Parkinson who lives in Edgecumbe, has seen the damage first hand.
‘‘The first priority for our community was to make sure everyone got out safely. We are out with some of our farming customers who are facing some big challenges around getting stock to dry land and milking.’’
Growers in water-logged kiwifruit orchards in the Edgecumbe district are assessing the damage to their crops as floodwaters recede.
Sjoerd Overdevest, who has an orchard in Te Teko just outside Edgecumbe, said he had escaped unscathed but both the house and orchard of his brother Bas in Otakiri Rd were completely underwater.
‘‘It’s been very localised so we’re alright, but others haven’t been so lucky,’’ he said.
Soils in the district were largely volcanic, so most of the water would drain off reasonably fast.
A Zespri spokeswoman said it was too soon to say the extent of the damage to orchards. It was difficult to access some orchards because they were cut off. She said Edgecumbe was a relatively significant growing area.
Karl said the company’s Edgecumbe packhouse was located on higher ground on the other side of the river to the hard hit residential zone. The site was evacuated on Thursday but was largely unaffected except there were problems with sewage.
There are 250 staff who work in the packhouse, 30 of whom are foreigners who had to be evacuated out to the Te Puke campground, but they were back at work on Friday morning.
Meanwhile milk collection has not been compromised by the flooding.