Coasters battle to stay in at-risk homes
Residents in a West Coast settlement have paid more than $10,000 each for protection from the sea but experts say they will still have to leave their homes.
The sea inundated properties in Hector and Granity, north of Westport, when the remnants of ex-Cyclone Fehi hit in February.
Coastal engineer Rob Bell of Niwa (National Institute for Water & Atmospheric Research), Climate Change Research Institute senior research fellow Judy Lawrence and the Ministry for the Environment’s Emma Lemrie met the community and regional council staff in Greymouth on Tuesday. They discussed the ministry’s updated coastal hazards and climate change guidance document, which noted 133,265 people are at risk of sea level rise and 68,170 buildings – including 43,680 houses – are vulnerable.
It is estimated replacing the buildings will cost $19 billion.
Granity school teacher Penny Madden’s home in Hector was substantially damaged in February’s storm.
She has banded with eight neighbours to build a bund to protect their homes during future swells. ‘‘We went to a meeting with the regional council and they asked what can they do for us and when someone makes a suggestion they say: we can’t do that. They keep saying there is no money. So all the residents where I live have done their own work.
‘‘There are a couple of gaps but most paid for their own protection to be put in,’’ she said.
Madden’s section of the bund cost $12,000 and she hoped it would give her another 10 years at the property. Niwa and the regional council have told the residents that leaving the area is the only long-term solution.
‘‘Moving has been mentioned but mentioned is about it.
‘‘They don’t know how that will actually happen. We are sceptical. I think they are waiting for us to be washed away,’’ she said.
Madden could not afford another mortgage with only 10 years until retirement.
Brent Dyhrberg and Rex Wishnowsky paid $11,000 to have their property protected.
They had retained their insurance cover but were still vulnerable because of a ‘‘gaping great hole’’ in the bund next door.
Their neighbour, who lives in Wellington and has not been to the property since February, has refused to pay for any protection.
Dyhrberg said he feared the sea would come into their property when it inevitably flooded their neighbour’s.
‘‘We have had to build a bund along his boundary. We don’t see it as a permanent solution, but it might give us five or maybe 10 years,’’ Dyhrberg said.
West Coast Regional Council chief executive Mike Meehan said leaving the area was the best option in the long-term.
‘‘We haven’t got all the answers. The biggest battle when we are talking to the community is who pays.’’
Buller District Council building inspectors red-stickered 35 houses and yellow-stickered 29 after ex-Cyclone Fehi hit.
Insurance Council figures reveal the storm cost $45.9 million in claims nationwide, while extropical Cyclone Gita a few weeks later cost another $35.6m.
Bell said the settlements of Hector and Granity were in imminent threat of inundation.
Sea levels had been rising by 2 millimetres a year since 1900 and would rise by 20-30 centimetres in the next few decades.
Coastal flooding would become more frequent, particularly when king tides coincided with storms. Bell said insurance companies would inevitably withdraw cover, or raise premiums, for vulnerable communities.