Flood cleanup poses challenges
Rayner Fredrick (indicating with the board how high the water rose), his son Merlin, 17, and (in the background) Karlin Spiers clean up a sarurated shed at a Rockville property. Photo: Ina Holst.
Council and various contrsactors are in recovery mode after the district’s recent floods. Work teams are still dealing with damage to roads, fences and private properties.
Tasman District Council’s acting recovery manager Gary Clark has provided an update on the works in progress across the district. Work in Golden Bay has continued, he said, but at a reduced level due to staff leave requirements.
“The height of the Aorere River has also restricted some river works. Murchison has seen some significant damage to roads, bridge approaches, culverts and several farm properties. The damage costs for infrastructure for the Murchison part of the storm event is likely to exceed that of the Golden Bay infrastructure, except for the yet-to-be determined costs for the James Road bridge. The Maruia Saddle is still closed with specialist equipment working to clear debris from the road.”
The costs associated with repair and/or replacement of council assets are still being assessed. Final estimates are not expected until some time next week, but are thought to be in excess of $1,000,000. Some government funding may be available to the district to address the damage.
Mr Clark said that work on retraining the now-rerouted Aorere River back to its original river channel is ongoing, and work is progressing slowly due to contractor leave requirements and health and safety issues relating to the river height.
“It was not possible to have the larger machines in the river because of the river level and the unknown nature of the river bed. The river has dropped, which will allow these machines to work in this area safely. There will be at least four machines moving material around and improving the level of protection that currently exists. This will involve lowering the river bed and retrieving, where possible, rock to replenish banks to put the river back to its original course,” he explained. “While I accept that from the community’s perspective, progress has been slow, it is important that any work is well planned and managed to ensure that remedial work is done cost-effectively and robustly to provide the necessary protection to the community. Road repairs will continue over several weeks as resources allow.”
Mr Clark said that the event has shown that clear communication of issues was vital in dealing with matters effectively. “There has been a lot of activity and a lot of information communicated by various parties. There is a lot of expertise and local knowledge going into the response to the event and it is important to we work together to achieve the end goal for the community.”
Councillor Noel Riley, who is also second co-ordinator for Civil Defence, confirmed there had been communication issues which will be addressed at a debrief scheduled for mid-January. He explained that information gathered from a helicopter had not been transferred back in a timely manner to local Civil Defence co-ordinator Roger Broadhurst, who should have been taken on the data-gathering flights because of his local knowledge. The holiday season and computer problems had also adversely affected communications.
“It’s Murphy’s law – it just happened at the worst time of the year,” Mr Riley said. “The problems that were discovered will be sorted out very quickly. For the last two years we have worked on a recovery plan for Golden Bay and it appears that the plan was not followed from the other end, and that will need to be addressed too.”
