Tair¯awhiti’s residents becoming ‘old hands’ dealing with extreme weather
While the latest damaged is assessed, respite might be short-lived as more bad weather looms. By Gianina Schwanecke.
Fences and floodgates have been swept away on Ian Newman’s Whangara farm, but he reckons he’s got off lightly.
‘‘We got a little bit of damage but not as bad as the hill over. They got a lot of damage,’’ he said, reflecting on the impact of Cyclone Hale, which swept through the Taira¯whiti region this past week. The river had come up quite high, Newman said, depositing silt and taking out patches of about 50 metres of fencing and some floodgates.
Clean-up on the 960-ha sheep and beef farm, about 30 kilometres north of Gisborne, would involve clearing silt and debris from the fences nearest the river, he said, and would take several weeks. ‘‘We’ll have to wait for it to dry out to replace some of them. Things have settled down a little bit but in saying that I think we have some more rain coming next week.’’
Locals are being told to make the most of the calm while they can, with MetService warning of the possibility of the region being ‘‘sideswiped’’ again this coming week.
MetService meteorologist Alec Holden said a low-pressure feature of some variety was expected about Thursday, though it was still unclear how much, if any, rain the region might have. ‘‘We are very uncertain how close this brush with the system will be and whether that will involve heavy rain for the region.’’
Gisborne District Council Civil Defence emergency manager Ben Green said for now the focus would be on reviewing the damage while residents had some respite from the weather.
‘‘We still have families isolated in Tauwhareparae and agencies continue to offer welfare support to these people.’’
Contractors had been working ‘‘around the clock’’ to get roads open, though there were still 18, primarily around Uawa, that remained closed yesterday, Green said.
‘‘We’re hoping for this number to be down to 11 by Sunday night,’’ he said.
There was still a lot of woody debris in the rivers and near shore, with locals urged to stay out of waterways and the ocean, Green said.
People were also advised to refrain from using excessive amounts of water such as by trying to catch up with washing.
Green said any further rain was likely to bring more silt and surface flooding, so road conditions could rapidly deteriorate.
MetService’s Alex Holden said the agency would continue to keep a close eye on the coming system as it developed and expected to have a clearer picture by tomorrow.
In the meantime, more settled weather was anticipated over the next two days, with temperatures of 20C and some southeasterlies.
‘‘It’s not a bad idea to get in while you can now for clean-up efforts,’’ Holden said.
While there would be some ‘‘isolated showers’’ moving in from the south, it would be nowhere near the rainfall brought by Cyclone Hale, he said.
Newman, the Whangara farmer, said extreme weather events were unfortunately becoming more frequent. Ahead of further bad weather, his focus was on moving stock to the safety of higher ground.
Further north, Leanne Clarke of Stranded in Paradise Eco Lodge in Tokomaru Bay said the scenes driving up from Gisborne were ‘‘massive.’’
Returning home on Friday, she said some nearby residents had asked to stay in one of their cabins, because water was coming up to their door.
Thankfully the settlement had escaped largely unscathed and fared better compared with previous events.
‘‘Everyone is getting old hands at this,’’ she said.