Flood victims set to get relief aid
More than $245,000 has been donated for victims of the heavy rain event in Nelson and Tasman.
Co-ordinator of the Mayoral Relief Fund, Jim Frater, said the fund totalled $556,000 yesterday, including the Government’s increased contribution of $300,000. The first funds would be allocated next week to affected members of the community whose applications met the relevant criteria.
All the money donated would go to people in need, with the administration of the fund being covered by the Nelson City Council, and committee members volunteering their time, Frater said.
On Thursday, 91 properties in the region remained red-stickered, 103 yellow-stickered, and 562 whitestickered.
Nelson Tasman Civil Defence officials couldn’t say how much the emergency response had cost, or what the recovery was likely to cost.
The ‘‘response was still in operation’’ as the region moved out of a state of emergency, and it was too early to estimate costs, Frater said.
‘‘This is a major event that will take a considerable time to recover from.’’
The money for the response came from several sources, including insurance, grants – for example, from Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency for roading – and National Emergency Management Agency claims.
The recovery would be partially funded ‘‘within business as usual’’, and using the Emergency Recovery Fund, ‘‘whereby we borrow to fund and repay over time’’, Frater said.
The Emergency Operations Centre said that to transition out of the state of emergency, Nelson City mayor Rachel Reese and Tasman District mayor Tim King would approve a Transition Notice. Signing the notice meant the response moved over to recovery during a transition period.
The purpose of the transition period was to ‘‘aid recovery by providing powers to manage, co-ordinate, or direct recovery activities’’.
There would be little change to what the public saw, with the objective to get people back into their homes as soon as possible.