Time now for the weather to help

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

The weather is finally turning towards some sunshine and mostly dry weather, so the draining and drying out process is under way for our saturated region.

As the recovery phase from this latest prolonged battering of heavy rain shifts into full gear, that is something we can be thankful for.

Our hillsides need most of the excess water to drain away before the threat of further slipping in and around fresh landslides will recede.

Sewage overflow issues on properties in the city and in some rural areas can now be resolved as pressure on the system is reduced and the high groundwater table starts retreating. The council is sending out teams to clean and disinfect affected areas.

For our cut-off communities, the steady draining away of water is especially important where roads have been taken out by landslides and slippage, and are now being prioritised for reconnection.

For the regional economy, nowhere is accelarated drainage more urgent than on Otoko Hill where land movement has caused State Highway 2 to the north — our most important transport connection — to drop and crack in multiple places.

The tally of local roads that remain closed is down to 56, from as many as 92 during the heavy rain last week. The council expects to have many of these roads reinstated over the next two weeks, some only to a temporary level. Some of this work does need the ground to dry out first.

As many as 40 of these roads were already being worked on or in need of work following damage from cyclones Hale and Gabrielle earlier this year.

For some property owners faced with land stability issues the damage  might already be done, with at least two homes red-stickered following the latest bout of heavy rain. Others threatened by slips on surrounding land will be watching those carefully.

Our hills and the soft rock geology of the Tairāwhiti region have been tested to the extreme in the series of severe weather events this year.

For the region’s most weather-exposed and erosion-prone land on the East Coast, it is now a crippling eight severe weather events over the past 21 months — exacerbated in the worst of them by forestry slash and other woody debris in the floodwaters.

It is not just the land and the infrastructure on top of it that have been strained and damaged. Our people and vulnerable communities have been tested to the limits also.

We need to continue rallying around those who have been most affected.

Let’s hope also that the sun shines on the recovery effort and our waterlogged region and people — and that we have had our last severe weather event for the year.