ROAD TO RECOVERY: Tiniroto Road is one of 3000 sites damaged on the Gisborne District Council roading network during Cyclone Gabrielle. Picture by Liam Clayton
Three months on from Cyclone Gabrielle the size of the repair task is now known — and it is big and expensive.
Gisborne District Council this week released its Cyclone Recovery Plan, a plan that will need $555 million of immediate Government funding to complete. A further $613m is required to build resilience into the future to ensure communities are safe and protected.
“In the months since we came out of a National State of Emergency on March 14, the Recovery Centre has mapped out how we can recover,” Mayor Rehette Stoltz said.
Tairāwhiti’s road to recovery has identified immediate costs in the following four categories:
■ Built environment (covers transport, water, solid waste and flood protection infrastructure, community facilities, emergency response and clean-up);
■ Natural environment (covers assessments and analysis, environment-enhancing programmes);
■ Social environment (covering community engagement resources, housing navigation services and employment and retention training); and
■ Economic environment (covers cost recoveries, crop losses, infrastructure costs).
Mayor Stoltz said the focus was on developing a regional community-led recovery plan.
“This phase will emphasise the importance of whānau, hapū, iwi and community being at the centre of engagement while the recovery wraps around to ensure whanāu and communities live the lives they value and are safe, connected and protected.”
The task ahead is extensive.
The plan states the region’s roading network has 3000 registered faults to fix, with more than 130 sites on state highways also in need of repair.
There are still more than 200 drop-outs and 61 bridges damaged.
Slash removal is still needed from a further 77 bridges, with 111 other structures such as retaining walls and river protection stopbanks damaged.
The plan states 24 percent of the region’s population needed welfare support and 166 households were evacuated.
“Full recovery is many years ahead of us, but Tairāwhiti is moving into a new future that is resilient and centred on the collective aspirations of Tairāwhiti communities,” the plan said.
To date $17.2m has been spent on local roads, a small amount of the estimated $305m-$420m needed for immediate repairs.
“If building back a resilient network is the plan, then an additional $200m-$400m is needed (on top of that),” the recovery plan sates.
“If the resilience needs to be incorporated later, there will be an additional $310m to retrofit in capital works alone, not to mention the risk of lost productivity and future recovery costs if the assets fail again.”
The cyclone also damaged the region’s water supply pipe.
In response to the damage, GDC repaired the pipeline in eight locations.
“However, the network remains incredibly vulnerable, and there is concern that the system could sustain more damage through the winter.
“To date $2.8m has been spent on response and restoring main water services. There is a need to develop a resilient solution — this is an additional $73m — but if this is undertaken now there is a likely saving of more than $10m from avoiding sunk costs repairing the existing line.”
Another $39.8m is needed to repair flood protection systems damaged by both Gabrielle and Cyclone Hale.
“The council needs to urgently develop a plan to repair and rebuild the flood protection system to ensure the safety and wellbeing of its residents, as well as invest in new schemes to prevent further damage to public and private property.
“The impacts of the cyclone across the flood management system is from reduced capacity in the channels due to siltation, woody debris build-up at structures and stopbanks that have either failed or are no longer fit for purpose.”
The recovery plan also proposes a major spend to revamp the region’s wharves to ensure a “Blue Highway” for trade.
“Access to the coast north of Gisborne is vulnerable to severe weather events.
“Providing a sea-bound route offers an alternative mode of transport in the event of disrupted access where emergency response is critical. Further, restoring this network of wharves provides an ongoing tourism opportunity to the region.
“The project involves repairing and restoring wharves at Hicks Bay, Port Awanui, Tokomaru Bay and Tolaga Bay. The total cost, including capital upgrades and ongoing consequential opex (operating expense), is estimated at $12.4m.”
Another $6.8m is wanted to restore power connections.
The plan also revealed Chorus is moving the fibre network at the Tokomaru Bay Bridge to a fully aerial solution, so it is independent of the bridge structure.
“It is also providing diversity for the Gisborne circuits. Dense Wavelength-Division Multiplexing equipment is being retrofitted on the East Cape fibre route, so the alternative is available for traffic in case of disruption to the Gisborne to Napier cable.”
Completion of this work was anticipated to be this month.
Others proposals for funding are $1.5m to fence, plant and conduct predator control on the waterways that damaged the region’s reserves and facilities.
A new waka ama, kayaking and rowing facility, away from flood-prone Anzac Park is proposed at a cost of $8.4m.
Another $3.6m is wanted to investigate natural hazards from future events.
The recovery plan highlighted the devastating economic losses suffered, putting those at $415m to $475m over the next three to five years.
A proposed Social Wellbeing Recovery Fund would need $2m.
“The proposal for the welfare stream is to facilitate and fund initiatives and projects which are focused on building connected and empowered communities.
“A collaborative approach that engages with existing networks and local organisations is the model that will allow reach into communities that might otherwise not engage with the recovery process.
“This will involve work with trusted local partners and community leaders on projects driven by community voice and need. Examples of potential projects and initiatives are community gardens, sports tournaments and events, Matariki celebrations, preparedness workshops, skill-sharing sessions and table talk sessions.”
On top of that, $2.7m is wanted for community connection support, along with $1.5m for a Cultural Cohesion Recovery Fund serving 70 operational marae across Tairāwhiti to recover, empower and plan for the future of their natural and cultural environment, and disaster management.
Housing remains a major issue.
Last month (April 27) there were 177 whānau registered with the Ministry of Business Innovation & Employment’s Temporary Accommodation Service.
The recovery plan is seeking $10m to $12m to provide immediate housing for those affected.
“Central Government has supported the proposal to use part of Whai Kāinga Whai Oranga prototype funding to build and deliver 100 temporary homes, working closely with Toitū Tairāwhiti to support this delivery.”
The plan proposes $10m to upskill and support employment.
“MSD (the Ministry of Social Development)is responsible for activating and administering Civil Defence payments during and immediately post disaster period. As of April 15, 9219 people received Civil Defence payments in Tairāwhiti totalling $7m,” the report said.
“MSD has noted some Tairāwhiti benefit trends and numbers since the event. Benefit numbers for Tairāwhiti have increased 5.4 percent since the event.
“Benefit numbers are significantly higher for Māori in Tairāwhiti in comparison to European. Eighty percent of those on a main benefit are Māori.”
In summary the plan stated: “The cornerstone for our recovery programme is the importance of community-led recovery plans through our Collective Impact framework.
“Collective Impact places whānau, hapū, iwi and community at the centre of engagement and ensures that communities lead conversations that determine how they wish to live their lives.
“In supporting community-led recovery plans, GDC’s focus is on ensuring safe, protected, and connected communities.
“Safe and protected communities support the communities to be prepared for further events and reduce risk factors which make people vulnerable such as the risk of future flooding or damage to our water supply.
“When communities are connected whānau are able to fully participate, engage, communicate and be healthy.”
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