Post Cyclone Gita Clean-up may take ‘longer than a year’

Tasman people are being told to prepare themselves for a long and frustrating cleanup after what’s been described as the worst storm in living memory. Mayor Richard Kempthorne said it could take more than a year and more than NZ$1 million (FJ$1.48m) to properly clean up the region. “We have had a lot of damage, a lot of damage to the state highway and to council roads.

“All I could say at this stage is I’m quite sure it could be months, in fact it could be longer than a year because there’ll be a lot to do, and it’s got to be programmed, it’s got to eventually fit into a budget once that’s been established and some of that will be over time.” Mr Kempthorne said overflowing rivers and creeks had left dense mud and silt on many properties. Senior Journey Manager Neil Walker told Morning Report there are about 16 slips on the Takaka Hill road. He said crews were working from both ends of the road.

“They’re currently trying to assess how long it’s going to take to reopen the road, it’s gonna be at least days.”

Thousands of people were trapped after the storm caused several slips on the roads into Golden Bay.

Civil Defence Minister Kris Faafoi and Primary Industries Minister Damien O’Connor flew by helicopter with Civil Defence director Sarah Stuart-Black yesterday to assess the damage, while the defence force is flying in welfare teams to help those stranded.

Food supplies, essential as the town is running low, arrived on a barge yesterday, with 11 pallets of groceries are being unloaded.

RNZ understands a bigger barge is expected about midday, which will have more food supplies, including chilled goods, as well products for the area’s dairy processing plants. On Wednesday, The Takaka Fresh Choice completely ran out of bread, milk, and other essentials. Co-owner Mike Reynish said there were plans to keep the supermarket stocked.

“The plan is with this barge coming in that ... it should be a barge coming every day, so it should be the same as what it would be through the road. We’ll know more when we’ve actually got the report back from them.”

Civil Defence is still door-knocking to establish how bad and widespread the damage is. Civil Defence was also rationing fuel, with a NZ$30 (FJ$ 44.50) daily restriction per vehicle per day, exempting emergency services and volunteers helping with the recovery.

A Riwaka orchard owner, Evan Heywood, lost fields of fruit and said it could take eight years to get back up to speed.

Mr Heywood said he had never seen a storm like it.

“I’m third generation so, yeah since probably about 80 years, and I think this is the worst - I was talking to my father today and this is the worst natural disaster he’s seen.