‘Heartbreaking’ storm damage leaves 1200 homeless in Nelson
About 1200 evacuated Nelson residents could still not return home yesterday and major routes like Rocks Rd will be closed for the ‘‘foreseeable future’’ as wild weather continues to hit the region.
Tasman Region Civil Defence group controller Alec Louverdis said yesterday he understood the frustration of those who had to leave their homes because of flooding or the threat of unstable land.
But the focus was planning for the next 24 hours, with a MetService red rainfall warning still in place for the saturated city and surrounds.
‘‘We will take a prudent approach, but cannot guarantee people (evacuees) will be in their houses tonight. We are not making any decision lightly,’’ he said yesterday.
There were estimated to be two to three people in each of the 411 homes evacuated since the rain started on Wednesday, totalling about 1200 people displaced from their homes. The MetService said since Tuesday Nelson Airport had recorded 178mm of rain. Nelson city’s monthly average for August was 80mm.
An emotional Louverdis said the damage was ‘‘heartbreaking’’.
Nelson Mayor Rachel Reese said the situation was ‘‘quite devastating’’ for a region which had gone through a series of emergency events in recent years.
‘‘It’s going to be years of recovery. Some will not be able to go back to their homes.’’
Louverdis urged people to stay off the roads as the situation unfolded, as emergency responders were getting caught in traffic and road network chaos. He said a St John ambulance was stuck for an hour and a half and it was luck that the patient on board was not critical. He said the slips were too numerous to count, and slopes would continue to move for weeks.
Evacuations in Nelson
Reese said about a quarter of the evacuations were due to land instability, with residents in north Nelson saying it looked like ‘‘the hills are just falling down’’ and Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty saying the earth was pouring like yogurt during his visit on Thursday.
Paddocks in north Nelson were under water yesterday. Some residents in the coastal settlement of Glenduan were evacuated on Thursday night because the threat of slips.
Reese said yesterday that the evacuations had been spread across the city.
‘‘It’s been a big night. We’ve had the Defence Force supporting police and Fire and Emergency, providing transport and road access.’’
The mayor said she understood it was difficult for evacuees, but it was important that no-one returned to evacuated homes until they had been told it was safe, not even for pets which had been left behind.
‘‘We’re doing those assessments as fast as we can,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s going to be years of recovery. Some will not be able to go back to their homes.’’
Nelson mayor Rachel Reese
New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel were manning cordons around Nelson and getting food and goods up to the Maitai Valley Campground. They were working 12-hour rotations with at least 10 on duty at any one time.
Six Defence Force personnel assisted with the evacuation of 10 Nelson residents overnight Thursday.
Water warning for city
Efforts were under way yesterday to restore the main water supply line from the Maitai Reservoir to Nelson city after it failed during the previous night. The failure is presumed to be due to damage by a slip.
A secondary pipe was supplying water but at a much reduced flow rate and people were asked to conserve water.
Surface floodwaters should be considered contaminated. Children and pets should not be allowed to play in or drink the water, and anyone who comes into contact with it should wash their hands and sanitise contaminated objects.
Stay off the roads
Tasman District mayor Tim King joined the chorus urging people to stay off the roads for anything except for essential travel.
‘‘Please don’t go out and have a look, there’s a lot of people trying to get around to do work,’’ he said.
‘‘We need to minimise the traffic. Hop on social media, there’s plenty of photos and stories there.’’
He said contractors and emergency services teams needed to be able to travel to repair damage and help residents.
King said the focus now was on the ‘‘next lot of rain to come, given how saturated the land already is’’. Slips are a concern across the region, he said.
Several roads around the region were in poor condition after slips or downed trees damaged them, or raging surface floodwaters ripped up tarmac. At least one bridge, the Dry River bridge in Golden Bay, has been wiped out by floodwaters.
A street in north Nelson has been gouged out over a metre deep in some areas after a landslide uphill blocked a culvert and forced a river of floodwater down the street, though contractors at a nearby construction site managed to protect homes by working through the night to keep the water on the road.
Atawhai Drive has been covered by a river of mud near Iwa Rd, and Rocks Rd/SH6, which has been closed since Wednesday, has ongoing slips.
State Highway 63 had been reopened, restoring the alternative route from Marlborough to Nelson, Tasman, and the West Coast. However, with more heavy rain forecast, it was possible the road could close
again. State Highway 6, the main route between Nelson and Blenheim, was expected to remain closed for a week.
Havoc in north Nelson
Residents in north Nelson suburbs and small towns further out have been cut off from the city and from Blenheim on the other side.
Debs Martin, who lives in Todds Valley, faced a nightmare scenario overnight Thursday when big slips on the property behind hers blocked culverts and put her home in the firing line for floodwaters.
‘‘These two or three metre strainer posts just came bombing down the hill at us in the dark,’’ she said.
Martin said the water was a ‘‘brown torrent’’ that carried logs ‘‘like matchsticks’’.
‘‘It was incredible: brown, dirty, just everything that was coming off the hillside. The tarmac was literally lifting under my feet.’’
She said it was ‘‘quite terrifying’’ knowing her home was directly in the way of the water if the blocked culvert couldn’t be cleared. She said you could hear rocks and tumbling under the water.
Martin and her neighbours used a digger to make a trench to direct water away from the property, and she said yesterday that they ‘‘dodged a bullet’’, though she was left tired and on edge.
The area was cut off and heavy rain had resumed, she said.
‘‘It’s just keeping on, keeping on. It hasn’t stopped giving yet.’’
Guy Salmon, who lives in The Glen, north of Nelson, said his family were asked to evacuate, but then emergency services found that they couldn’t clear the road from the coastal settlement on Thursday night.
‘‘They did a reappraisal of the situation and where we are, it seemed like the risk was relatively low so ... we decided to stay. Our neighbours on either side did the same,’’ Salmon said.
He said there were slips on the sides of the valley, which made it difficult for anyone to get in or out.
Salmon said they could get out by foot by walking along the beach, but there was no vehicle access.
‘‘We’re a bit stranded until the road’s opened again, but we’ve got food to last for days.’’
They were also left without electricity yesterday morning.
‘‘We’re a camping family so we have a little cooker. It’s not ideal, but we’re managing.’’
Closer to town, Atawhai Drive resident Supun Tantirigoda described the sound of land moving ‘‘like an aeroplane starting’’.
‘‘We weren’t sure if it would come when we were sleeping,’’ he said.
Tantirigoda lives in a block of flats, and moved from his apartment to another in the block to get further away from the hillside. He and his family have only recently moved to New Zealand, he said.
‘‘We are from Sri Lanka, we came last month … we are not used to this. We thought if something happens what will we do?’’
He said he did not feel safe, but he felt reluctant to ‘‘bother’’ others.
The road along Atawhai Drive has become a river of mud, with several diggers clearing away dirt, rocks, boulders, trees and vegetation. Steep, gaping holes have been left in the side of the hill.
Power was restored to the Wakapuaka/north Nelson area at about 1pm yesterday after supply was lost to the Wakapuaka substation at 11pm on Thursday night.
More rain forecast – red warning in Nelson, orange in Tasman, Westport
MetService has maintained its red heavy rain warning for Nelson, as well as orange warnings for Tasman and Westport.
In Nelson (from Cape Soucis through the city until Stoke) and the Bryant Range the warning was in effect from about 3pm yesterday, lasting until noon today.
Over the course of the rain, 130 to 190 millimetres were expected to accumulate in the ranges, 70 to 110mm elsewhere, with peak rates of 10 to 20mm per hour.
In that same period in the Tasman District west of Motueka between 150 to 200mm of rain was expected to accumulate in the ranges, 80 to 110mm in low-lying areas, with peak rates of 15 to 25mm per hour particularly in the evening.
The rain could cause rapid rise in river levels, surface flooding, slips, and hazardous driving conditions. In Nelson some roads were likely to be impassable and some communities may be cut off.
Road closures around Te Tauihu (the Top of the South) could be found and journeys could be checked on Waka Kotahi’s live road closure map at journeys.nzta.govt.nz/traffic/.
Civil Defence Q&A
Nelson Tasman Civil Defence shared a lengthy questionnaire on social media, topping with four key pieces of advice: conserve water, respect cordons, close early (if you are running a business in Nelson), and check for landslips on your property.
‘‘This is very important because our teams can’t get around all potential areas affected – that means we are relying on people to look around their own homes and note any concerning changes.’’
Any concerning changes should be reported to your local council to relay to the emergency operations team.
The announcement said the state of emergency was still in effect and ‘‘the weather hasn’t done with us yet’’ despite the lull yesterday morning.
People were urged to stay off the roads and work from home if possible, and to ‘‘pretty please’’ not drive to bridges, rivers, or cordoned areas to ‘‘rubberneck’’.
‘‘We understand your frustration but it’s just not safe [to cross cordons]. PLEASE respect the cordons and the people who are staffing them.’’
Anyone wanting to help was urged to hold their horses on volunteering until the event was over and cleanup began, and to consider donating in cash to either the mayoral relief fund or to local charities.
‘‘Food is love, but unfortunately we can’t distribute food we haven’t made ourselves – there have been cases where generously donated food has made people sick and we just can’t risk that. Same goes for clothes, bedding etc. Thank you so much but it becomes a logistical nightmare. Your kindness is awesome, but please DON’T send us goods (even nice new items).’’
In the meantime, people should conserve water as ‘‘infrastructure issues are widespread and stuff is still happening’’.
‘‘We are working 24/7 for you and we won’t stop until things are safe and the situation is under control.’’
The Nelson Tasman mayoral relief fund is open to public donations to support the immediate needs of evacuees and others affected by the barrage of rain and subsequent floods and landslides.
Donations can be made via direct bank deposits to the Nelson City Council bank account 03 0703 0325055 00 using the reference Mayoral Relief Fund.