Slash blamed as Coast home smashed again

“IT’S JUST NOT FAIR”: Flooded land in front of Linda Gough’s home after the Mangatokerau Stream overflowed. “We can’t get out our driveway, our fences are gone, the gate’s gone, there’s not a paddock left. Everything is covered in silt and logs . . . it’s just not fair and it wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the logs,” she said. Picture by Linda Gough.

A Tairāwhiti resident says her home would not have flooded if it was not for a sea of logs that blocked a nearby river during heavy rain.

The region has been battered by rain as ex-tropical Cyclone Hale passed down the country.

It was put into a state of emergency on Tuesday night and that remains in place.

Linda Gough, who lives inland in Tolaga Bay next to the Mangatokerau River, said she was keeping an eye on the banks on Tuesday night as the rain was pelting down.

At about 9.30pm it was high tide and Mrs Gough said the riverbanks looked high, but not like they were going to breach. She felt at ease.

But then logs started drifting downstream.

“Within that hour our whole property was under water. Water was coming up the stairs, running underneath (the house). It killed off all our power, all the freezers, fridges.”

Come yesterday there was a sea of logs and debris where the river used to be and destruction to her entire property.

“We can't get out our driveway, our fences are gone, the gate's gone. There's not a paddock left. Everything is covered in silt and logs . . . it's just not fair and it wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for the logs.”

The logs — called slash — are the waste products from forestry operations and are an ongoing problem for the East Coast.

There are forestry works up the valley from her home and she was furious the debris had blocked the river and risked their safety — especially because it's not the first time this has happened.

Mrs Gough said in 2018 the almost exact event played out when Cyclone Cook hit the Coast.

“We lost absolutely everything,” she said.

But she noticed this time there seemed to be more logs.

From the damage in 2018, Gough said they were approached by a lawyer from one of the forestry companies to cover costs of the damage.

“Their lawyer sat at the bottom of our staircase, saying he was coming to talk about fixing us up for what we'd lost . . . I said ‘no, we'll just go to court because that's ridiculous' . . . and he says ‘oh well you can do that, but we've got unlimited funds and we'll just keep going' . . . they know we can't fight them.”

Gough said the company took off costs for things like already clearing the logs and the damaged fences and they didn't end up with “basically nothing” in hand.

That year, an estimated one million tonnes of logs and debris were strewn on properties and roads in Tolaga Bay.

Hikurangi Forest Farms, which has now changed its name to Aratu Forests, Ernslaw One and PF Olsen, were among 10 companies charged by the Gisborne District Council in 2019 with breaching their resource consent conditions for the slash debris.