Flood donations leave community workers “completely blown away”
Community Workers Glynn Rogers and Sheryl Nalder say they are constantly impressed by the way Golden Bay steps up in an emergency.
“I’m completely blown away by the way this community looks out for itself,” said Glynn.
“People don’t just live here; they care,” said Sheryl.
During and after the recent disastrous rain events in the eastern Bay, organisations and individuals went out of their way to donate cash, food, goods like appliances and vouchers of various kinds to help affected people overcome their losses and get back to some form of normality. The donated goods went to the community workers because people know that they have networks into all parts of the Golden Bay community.
Now that the disaster has moved into recovery mode, the community workers are very keen for people to know that they can still access the things that were donated by making an appointment and having a conversation.
“There is help available,” said Sheryl. “People don’t need to be martyrs or suffer in silence. If the floods and slips have had an effect on them or their families we are very likely to be able to help.”
“In the period of the disaster lots of people kept themselves very busy - now we’re in that lengthy waiting period and the clean-up is mostly over, it can get frustrating,” said Glynn. “We’re here to help in a whole lot of ways. It might be as simple as organising and paying for Helping Hands to do three or four hours of tidying up work.
“It’s just a matter of carefully matching up the people’s needs with the resources we have. We know there’s a lot of emotional stress out there. It can be a tough time for relationships, too. It might be useful to be able to talk to someone who’s a bit more detached from the situation but understands it all. We’ve heard all the stories.”
Glynn also said that they are aware that not all the affected people went through the Civil Defence welfare centre at the Pohara Hall. That means there may be families who have suffered some losses that the workers are unaware of.
“It’s fine for people to contact us themselves on 525 9728. We don’t mind if we’re told about others who may benefit from some help as well.”
As the school holidays come to an end, families will be thinking about getting their children back to school and there may be ways the community workers can assist there as well. School shoes, school bags and children’s “treasures” that were stored in the garage might all have been damaged by silt or water, Glynn said.
“People must realise that they qualify for some support and not suffer or go without. Maybe our assistance can help bridge the gap between what is covered by insurance and what’s not.”
The community workers say that they are only able to offer this practical assistance because of the generosity and community spirit of, “lots of individuals, the Lions Club, Trash Palace, the collections organised by the Nelson Building Society and Westpac Trust, and the St Vincent de Paul society.”
Neil Wilson
EQC and Section 124 Update
As the recovery from the December rain events continues the EQC have been working through the 750 claims they have received.
Recovery manager Michael Schruer said the EQC’s geotechnical engineers have started inspecting affected properties.
“While there is still a fair amount of work to do throughout the region, there is certainly light at the end of the tunnel for many individual homeowners.”
The EQC’s geotechnical engineers will be releasing their reports to the respective councils of the inspections they have carried out on private properties with the wording “the geotechnical risk is no worse than before the flood event of 14 December”. This wording will allow the councils to consider removal of S124 notices if they were issued solely for geotechnical reasons.
“This is a very important point we have to stress to property owners. A number of S124 notices have been issued for building safety and insanitary conditions that have been caused by land movement. These will have to be rechecked by the councils’ building inspectors before the building’s status is finalised.”
“If, however, there are no additional reasons for the S124 notice, other than land movement in the vicinity, a simple phone call could be all it takes to gain entry to the property on a permanent basis,” said Mr Schruer.
Only the Tasman District and Nelson City Councils’ building consent units can approve the removal of the S124 notice once the property has been considered no longer dangerous or insanitary. This means in most cases, property owners covered by EQC will not require an additional geotechnical report for the councils to remove the S124 notice.
In some cases of S124s being issued for reasons other than geotechnical, each councils’ building units have the option to issue a notice to fix with reasonably tight timeframes for remediation allowing the S124 to be removed.
The removal of a S124 notice does negate the need for the property owner and /or their insurance company to retain the services of a geotechnical engineers to design or undertake any remedial work.
In the first instance property owners who have received a geotechnical report from EQC should ring their respective councils.
Submitted by TDC
