Residents rushed to safety
Residents were evacuated from their homes in the West Coast villages of Hector and Granity amid fears a raging sea whipped up by ex-cyclone Gita could flood their homes.
Emergency services went door to door to order people form their homes in a mandatory evacuation of properties on the seaward side of the main road north of Westport.
People gathered up bags and belongings – and some hastily grabbed pets – as police, fire, Civil Defence and Red Cross staff urged them to get to safety in Westport or at friends’ houses, with some gardens already flooded by the sea.
Authorities urged others to stay indoors and strongly advised people not to travel unless essential.
Some were far from happy about being ordered to leave, preferring to stoically sit out threats from nature they have faced before time and again.
Lynn Stoddart, 62, a musician and artist who has lived in Hector for 17 years, stood her ground as long as possible.
But after police and Civil Defence officers at her front door ordered her out for her own safety she eventually agreed to leave.
Granity and Hector have long borne the brunt of wild weather lashing the West Coast, and earlier this month homes in the area were flooded during Cyclone Fehi.
Brent Dyhrberg and Rex Wishnowsky, who were evacuated yesterday evening, fortified their Hector home with sandbags in an effort to protect it from swirling floodwaters.
Fehi flattened a natural protective barrier of flax at the bottom of their garden, leaving the sea inches from their front door.
‘‘We have lost so much land,’’ Wishnowsky said. ‘‘We can see ground where the sea has come through.
‘‘Before, we had high flax at the bottom of the garden and couldn’t see the sea. But two weeks ago it was gone. We were tidying up, but what is the point?’’
The move to evacuate came after a state of emergency was declared in Buller, with authorities fearing there could be a risk to people’s lives, infrastructure and vital services.
Sergeant Malcolm Lamont said people were moved from around a dozen homes for their safety.
He said: ‘‘At this stage we are just evacuating all the houses in the northern part of Granity right through to Hector and evacuating them into Westport where it’s safer for them.
‘‘The sea’s starting to come across the back yards of some of the houses similar to what it did two weeks ago.
‘‘With the wind and the tide – the tide again in the morning but wind now – we are worried about the safety of the people left in these houses and the wind whipping up the sea.’’
Earlier, Buller District Mayor Garry Howard said authorities had ‘‘never been so prepared’’ in the face of a natural disaster.