The Government will provide a further $500,000 to Wairoa’s Mayoral Relief Fund to help the community after last week’s devastating flooding in the town.
Hundreds of properties were flooded with about $40 million worth of damage estimated in the Hawke’s Bay town of about 9000 people. Yesterday, Mayor Craig Little told Breakfast the situation on the ground in the town was “soul-destroying” for residents.
Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell announced new money for the town today after a $100,000 relief fund was first established last week.
The Government would also support an independent review launched into “significant concerns” that the Wairoa River bar wasn’t opened quickly enough, before the flooding.
Mitchell said: “I have been back on the ground in Wairoa today to get a further sense of the impacts and recovery operations, and to meet with affected community members and the people providing support.
Amongst the clean-up efforts, residents are asking how this could happen again.
“Last week’s flooding has been really tough for Wairoa, particularly following the impacts of other severe weather events in the past couple of years, and the district council have indicated that they require financial support to clean up damaged properties.
“Today’s additional contribution to the Mayoral Relief Fund will provide support for the community’s immediate and pressing needs, such as section clean-ups, replacing clothes and bedding, and the hire and purchase of drying and dehumidifying equipment.”
Environment Minister Penny Simmonds commented on an independent review that was in the process of being commissioned into the regional council’s response.
In Wairoa, local residents have criticised the council’s handling of decisions over how soon to open the river mouth amid the flooding.
The review was expected to take around four weeks, with findings and recommendations to be presented to the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and Wairoa District Council next month.
Torrential rain and flooding have triggered states of emergency in several regions.
Simmonds said: “Significant concerns have been raised by the Wairoa community about the management of the Wairoa River bar by the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and the impact this had on flooding of properties in the district.
“This review will look at whether there was adequate monitoring of the state of the Wairoa River bar; whether correct decisions were made in a timely way; and whether there were any other actions that could have been taken.
“It is about finding out where improvements can be made so we can better manage future events and protect communities.”
Town will end up ‘abandoned’ without support – mayor
Little said yesterday the situation on the ground in Wairoa was “soul-destroying”.
“People just don’t know how they’re going to get ahead of this one. They’re uninsured, it’s no fault of theirs and they’ve flooded where we’ve never flooded. It’s just horrible.”
He said he had counselled grown men and women who were crying in the street.
“We’ve got people who have stripped their homes out, especially the uninsured, how are they going to put their carpets in?” he said.
Mayor Craig Little is calling on the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council for more support as flood clean-up is estimated to cost more than $40 million.
“It’s just not good enough. People shouldn’t have to be living their life like this, we’ll end up with an abandoned town with people running away.”
Taskforce Kiwi founder and national director Richard Adams told Breakfast he arrived on Friday and described the situation for some areas as “worse than Cyclone Gabrielle”.
“The biggest difference is down to scale for a certain part of the community. It is devastating but at the same time its probably not quite as large as Gabrielle.”
He said it was “utter devastation” for hundreds of homes that had been washed through.
Locals say river mouth should’ve been opened earlier
On Monday, residents told 1News the river mouth should have been opened earlier.
“In my opinion, it’s mismanagement and they’re not listening to tangata whenua and people who know and have the knowledge of this river,” resident Wendy Howe said.
The regional council’s acting chief executive Iain Maxwell said it had been “closely monitoring the situation and initial forecasts” in the days leading up to the flooding.
“Our modelling showed river levels weren’t going to rise high enough to allow a successful river opening. On Monday, a revised forecast predicted more rainfall and we alerted our local contractor,” he said.
“On Tuesday, the contractor worked all day to prepare the river mouth for an opening. Overnight on Tuesday, the considerable and un-forecast rainfall flooded the lower reaches of the river, including the contractor’s equipment in a higher area he had always parked it,” Maxwell said.
