‘Heartbreaking’ Nelson damage leaves 1200 homeless
About 1200 evacuated Nelson residents cannot yet return home and major routes 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 that 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 [when evacuated] people will be in their houses. We are not making any decision lightly.’’
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 displaced people.
The MetService said that since Tuesday Nelson Airport had recorded 178mm of rain. Nelson city’s monthly average for August was 80mm.
Louverdis said the damage was ‘‘heartbreaking’’.
Nelson mayor Rachel Reese said the situation was ‘‘quite devastating’’ for a region that 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 said the slips were too numerous to count, and slopes would continue to move for weeks.
Reese said about a quarter of the evacuations were because of land instability, with residents in north Nelson saying it looked like ‘‘the hills were just falling down’’.
Paddocks in north Nelson were under water yesterday. Some residents in coastal Glenduan were evacuated on Thursday night because the threat of slips.
Reese said yesterday that the evacuations had been spread across the city.
She said it was important that no-one returned to evacuated homes, not even for pets that had been left behind, until they had been told it was safe.
New Zealand Defence Force personnel were maintaining cordons around Nelson and getting food and goods up to the Maitai Valley Campground.
Efforts were under way yesterday to restore the main water supply line from the Maitai Reservoir to Nelson city after it failed overnight. The failure is presumed to be because of damage caused by a slip.
More rain coming
The heavy rain and strong winds that have battered Aotearoa over the past few days are expected to continue throughout the weekend, according to MetService.
Heavy rain warnings are in place for Northland, Taranaki, Tararua, NelsonTasman, Buller and Westland.
Behind this extreme weather was a ‘‘long-lived atmospheric river’’ that landed on our shores on Tuesday, according to Niwa meteorologist Tristan Meyers.
He said atmospheric rivers were huge plumes of moisture that moved from the tropics to the mid-latitudes, where New Zealand sat.