Coasters assess damage,

Dozens of people are still homeless, a rubbish dump is leaking uncontrollably into the sea and the main state highway is precariously hanging on as the West Coast recovers from the aftermath of ex-cyclone Fehi.

Thirty-one homes are now uninhabitable in the Buller District and another 26 are yellow-stickered.

The Buller District Council is trying to help those who cannot return to their homes following the storm. The council lifted the state of emergency at 5pm last night.

Buller CEO Andy Gowland-Douglas said a number of those homes were uninsured and the council was now working with welfare agencies to help those who are stuck without permanent shelter.

‘‘All the people affected have had loads of volunteers helping them. A lot of them are currently in motels and next weekend we have the Buller marathon on so all the accommodation will be booked out from here to Punakaiki.’’

Gowland-Douglas did not know exactly how many were affected but knew there were 18 people in emergency accommodation on Friday night, while others stayed with family and friends.

The Coast was precariously close to being severed in two with just one lane of State Highway 6 at Punakaiki remaining.

‘‘We’re really at risk of being cut off again to be honest.

‘‘The road has been undermined quite significantly. If there is another big storm surge event we could lose the road completely,’’ Gowland-Douglas said.

Volunteers had been working in northern Buller to tidy up rubbish after the storm.

Meanwhile the Grey District Council is scrambling to stop the effects of an old rubbish dump leaking into the Grey River but it will take at least two weeks before a wall can be started. The sea is now encroaching onto the site.

The storm exposed the dump on the banks of the river on Thursday, although local reports indicated some erosion had begun in late 2017.

Waters continue to erode the dump as it added debris to an already heavily-polluted Cobden beach, which is now lined with tens of thousands of plastic bags.

The Grey District Council approved up to $1 millon for a new sea protection wall at the site on Friday but it will take about two weeks for the council to draw up a report on it.

The council said it started its own clean-up of the beach on Saturday morning after postponing a public working bee because of concerns of hazardous materials on the beach.

Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn said that the council didn’t know how it was going to fund the wall but hoped central government would pitch in.

‘‘We have approved the staff to build a sea protection wall there and we want to do that as soon as possible.

‘‘Staff are working on that right at the moment and they’ll give us a report in about a fortnight, it needs fixing right away.’’

Kokshoorn said the beaches were also still heavily littered and the town was going to pitch in to clean them up on Waitangi Day.

Meanwhile in Westland Civil Defence was still trying to find out the extent of the damage.

Chris Hawker, duty civil defence controller for Westland District said they were still trying to figure out how many people had been affected.

‘‘There are some houses that have been affected by water inundation.

‘‘There are two or three houses in Hokitika itself and they’ll be assessed by council tomorrow.’’