Ministers laud regions’ reaction to Gita
Civil Defence Minister Kris Faafoi and Primary Industries Minister Damien O’Connor, along with Civil Defence director Sarah Stuart Black, visited Nelson and the Tasman district yesterday to assess the damage in the wake of ex-cyclone Gita.
The trio met Tasman mayor Richard Kempthorn, Nelson mayor Rachel Reese and local civil defence staff.
Faafoi thanked Nelson civil defence staff working to clean up after the former cyclone, which has left much of the region under water.
‘‘I think the work that was done in preparation obviously put us in good stead. There’s some issues that we’ve just been informed about and that’s what we’re here to do today, just to see how we can help in central government,’’ Faafoi said.
‘‘Can I also acknowledge that you’ve been through this a couple of times over the past three or four weeks so hats off to you, whether it’s the councils or the Red Cross or the organisations or the defence force.
‘‘I’ve only been the civil defence minister for three or four months now but to see all those different parts of the the machinery work together as we deal with these kinds of issues more and more these days is quite heartening so see that it all happens when New Zealanders expect it to.’’
Faafoi said the group was going to spend the rest of the day visiting areas on the West Coast.
O’Connor, who is also MP for West Coast-Tasman, said it seemed ‘‘unfair’’ that it was his electorate being ‘‘hammered north and south’’.
Local civil defence staff at the control centre told the ministers that Takaka wasn’t as badly affected as anticipated in the end.
They said there were some blind spots where they thought some people were trapped, but they have had teams out on the road to check those areas. Takaka Hill is expected to be closed for several days. Meanwhile, barges with food supplies were being brought in yesterday.
A rural township in Marlborough is facing a massive cleanup operation as several homes, and the local school, were flooded.
Volunteer firefighters yesterday arrived in the Wairau Valley, 40 kilometres west of Blenheim, to help residents. About five properties were damaged on one street which was flooded.
Access to Kaiko¯ura was restored after the Inland Road – State Highway 70 – was reopened. State Highway 1 north of Kaiko¯ ura, from Mangamaunu to Clarence, and south between Peketa and Goose Bay, remained closed.
Kaiko¯ ura mayor Winston Gray said surface flooding affected two residential properties on Mill Rd and, further down the coast, a residential property in the Rosy Morn area was washed away.
‘‘In the township, we’ve dodged a bullet. At 11pm last night [Tuesday] we made a call to not declare a state of emergency. You’re always debating, ‘Should I or should I not?’.
‘‘The decision was the right one, as the weather turned away from us. It was a real blessing,’’ Gray said.
Contractors raced to shore up a section of State Highway 1 north of Wellington as high tide threatened to undermine the road.
New Zealand Transport Agency journeys manager Neil Walker said the footpath and guardrail running along a 60-metre section between Paeka¯ ka¯ riki and Pukerua Bay was already undermined, and there were fears the road could follow.
Christchurch received about half the rain forecast overnight Tuesday. Between 8am on Tuesday and noon yesterday, 69.2 millimetres was recorded at Christchurch Airport – enough to cause surface flooding, but not to flood homes.
An artisan butchery was thought to be the only business in Christchurch that flooded due to Gita.
Some roads in the city remained closed yesterday, but the storm passed largely without incident.
Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel lifted the state of emergency at 11am yesterday after the morning high tide passed with no major flooding issues for the city.