Wairoa residents angry at having to endure clean-up once again

by Jimmy Ellingham of RNZ 

More than 100 people remain out of their homes in Wairoa following June’s flood in the northern Hawke’s Bay town. 

Among them are Steve and Rangitaka Kelly, who live on Ngamotu Rd, a few hundred metres from the Wairoa River and close to the sea. 

They had only spent a handful of nights at home since November, when their house first flooded, barely moving back in after a wait for repairs when it was flooded again on June 26. 

“I brought my wife back from Hamilton. She was in the house for four days when that happened,” Steve Kelly said. 

“I think I’d slept in there for a couple of nights when I went to Hamilton.” 

He said both floods happened when the regional council failed to clear a channel in the Wairoa River bar. 

A government inquiry under way into the June flooding is expected to report back in three weeks. 

Wairoa Mayor Craig Little has led a chorus of criticism directed at Hawke’s Bay Regional Council for its inaction. 

The regional council has admitted that Wairoa would have flooded less if a channel to let the rising river release into the sea had been dug sooner. 

“I’m very angry. It was gut-wrenching and I was just so angry about it,” Kelly said of the June flood. 

“It could have been prevented and should have been prevented, but nothing was done.” 

A Ngamotu Rd resident of 40 years, Kelly, 69, said he and neighbours recently met with regional council officials about their concerns over the river bar, but these were ignored. 

For now Kelly and his wife — who is on oxygen permanently because she has lung disease — are staying in a caravan while their house dries out ahead of the builders’ return. 

Once the building was done, the council could then sign off to remove the yellow sticker. 

Kelly and his wife were not sure when they would be back. 

“They had to take part of the floor out to get the insulation because it was so waterlogged underneath. They’ve had to rip the walls out halfway through the house all the way around. 

“It’s gut-wrenching because we just had a new kitchen and everything.” 

They had home insurance but no cover for their contents, so were drying out household items. 

“We’ve got a few things in there we’re trying to protect ... some things we salvaged, but we don’t actually know if we’ll be able to save them.” 

Kelly would like to see the regional council pay compensation and, in future, listen to residents’ concerns. 

About 400 Wairoa properties were affected by June’s flood, including about 100 severely damaged. 

In town, next to the Wairoa River on Kopu Rd, Jason Smith was also annoyed and angry about what happened. 

On his side of town, there is still plenty of silt lining the streets, many of which are a hive of activity as builders get to work. 

“The clean-up was horrible. I don’t know how much silt we took off the property, but that was insane,” Smith said, adding there were 17 tonnes of stones spread over his property to cover the silt and mud on the driveway. 

“We couldn’t get any help from Civil Defence or anyone like that to try and help pay for the clean-up.” 

While their house and vehicles were spared, the workshop was ruined, he said. 

During Cyclone Gabrielle, there was more water in the river but his house and the surrounding area did not flood then because there was a way through the bar, he said. 

Iwi trust Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa chief executive Lewis Ratapu said about 100 iwi and hapū members had requested temporary accommodation after June’s floods, on top of the 160 still in such accommodation after Cyclone Gabrielle. 

“We’ve seen the same scale as Cyclone Gabrielle, really, in terms of housing. 

“We didn’t have the isolation [in June] — the roads, the infrastructure damage that we saw, and the communication loss, but in terms of the number of houses impacted, it’s similar.” 

Wairoa desperately needed more temporary and long-term accommodation, as many flood-affected residents were facing a bleak and cold winter, Ratapu said. 

Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa had delivered firewood to houses. It had also recently bought a holiday park in Māhia, and eight flood-affected families were staying there. 

Ratapu said the organisation was making available a quantity surveyor to assess damage on properties. 

A Hawke’s Bay Regional Council spokesperson said they were concerned for people flooded. 

“Ultimately, the flooding was the result of a significant weather event. We do what we can to mitigate those events but it is not always possible,” the spokesperson said. 

A serious attempt was made to open a new bar and close the old mouth despite adverse conditions, and the council had looked for opportunities to do that. 

“We totally understand the concern around the river bar. [The council] has been equally concerned about the position of the bar and looked through numerous inspections to identify its condition, i.e. how well it drains to sea and opportunities to move it. 

“Shifting it is a challenging operation involving the right river conditions, the right swell conditions and the right tides. Those conditions were not favourable during the recent bad weather.” 

The council welcomed the government review, and its own review, into decisions made. 

RNZ