Hospital praise
I have just spent a week in Nelson Public Hospital. I had three days in ICU, then the rest in the medical ward. I would like through your news paper to say thank you to all the staff too numerous to mention.
I went to the emergency GP on Saturday morning then ended up ICU, a strange and mysterious place but the care I received was amazing.
I then went to the medical ward where every one was so kind and took time to care for you even though their shifts where long and so very busy.
My time in this hospital with the care I received was outstanding and I could not have received more attention and gentleness. I was lucky enough to be given an ice block at 3am one morning to soothe my throat.
Thank you everyone for your care. Last week’s storm has raised awareness of coastal erosion and coastal flooding.
People walking at Rabbit Island were shocked at the ruination of years of effort and destruction of plantings along the shore.
The ex-cyclone caused significant erosion, and TDC data shows that it is uncommon in this district for natural recovery to restore the shoreline profile to the pre-event condition
Coastal flooding will be a major problem of the future.
Well-known problem areas nationally are Auckland’s Tamaki Drive, the Firth of Thames and Dunedin. Townships like Granity and Carter’s Beach already have problems and so does the state highway south.
Local roads are a local responsibility. Only state highways are funded by the central government; all the rest will be the ratepayer’s problem.
Insurance companies are well aware of the problems.
When will we experience insurance retreat from coastal properties and what effect will this have on property values? Insurance is paid for annually and at that point, the company may refuse to renew.
People tend to think in terms of ‘When will sea-level reach my property?’ However, insurance companies work in terms of frequency of storm surges, as this is when claims are filed.
When a one in a 100-year event becomes a one in 20-year event, you will lose insurance. Even a small change in sea-level can trigger this. For instance, this will occur in Wellington with only a 10cm rise (which will occur in the next 20 years).
If a property is uninsurable, then no one can take out a mortgage on it, and if it happens to an existing householder, it will breach the terms of their mortgage agreement with the bank.
They would be forced to sell. It would mean that only people who have the cash could buy the property, and since this reduces the number of people willing to buy it, the price will reflect this.
A further aspect is erosion, which results in beach retreat. Parts of the coast have retreated 50m, taking out property and roads. Important parts of both Richmond and Nelson are within a metre of sea level.
Allowing developments close to sea-level has been foolish for the last 20 years. Being merely reactive storm by storm is the least cost-effective method of dealing with the problem, and ultimately will fail.
I hate to mention the UK government and leadership in the same sentence, but they did a survey of their coast 20 years ago and made decisions as to which coastal areas should be defended, and from which areas managed retreat was the only possibility. Thus local authorities have been able to plan for the future.
This has not been the case here. Many councils do not yet have an
Are councils ready?
Information from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (November 2014 report) says that over the last century, the average sea level around the world has risen by about 20 centimetres. It will rise another 30cm or so by the middle of the century and up to a metre or more by the end of the century.
Niwa cannot be definitive about the last figure. It could be 1 or even 2 metres What is a realistic approach? Just before Christmas, the Ministry of the Environment updated their report of 10 years ago, upon which the government did not act. This report provides guidance that 100 years must be mandated for regional planning. This will give local authorities the teeth to deny developments in unsuitable areas.
In the recent past, the government has taken a hands-off approach and has largely ignored the effects of climate change. We have to begin moving on this now. We need to be sure we are not locking in developments which will have to be abandoned. Houses are taken to have at least a 50-year lifetime, and the feasible life of ports, roads, airports even longer.
People around our coast are saddened by the destruction and angry too that concentration on arguments by climate denialists have slowed public awareness of the real dangers to the community.
In the future, destructive storms will become an annual event. Councils must be able to plan ahead and put restrictions in place to avoid building in at-risk areas. What is the their financial responsibility for protecting coastal communities? Do they even have the funds to take this on? This resilience is something we need to address.
Jean Gorman has a physics degree and post-graduate diploma from London University, a graduate diploma in geography from Massey and was awarded a fellowship to study geology at Canterbury in 2004. She lives at Spring Grove, near Nelson.