Cyclone Gabrielle: Tararua recovery efforts focusing on building back better

Toni Chapman speaking to various organisations at the hui for social recovery. Photo / Leanne Warr

An important part of recovery from Cyclone Gabrielle was “all of us doing it together,” Tararua District Mayor Tracey Collis says.

She was speaking at a hui of local support networks including iwi, Rural Support Trust, Federated Farmers, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, the Ministry for Primary Industries, the Department of Internal Affairs and others.

She said the council wanted to work with all parties to get the best recovery possible for Tararua District.

Collis spoke of seeing glazed looks on people’s faces as they were overwhelmed by what had happened and what lay ahead.

“All you can do is put one [foot] in front of the other, and that’s on a good day.

“I’ve seen that. I’ve felt it in our communities.”

Tararua District Mayor Tracey Collis: Recovery could offer opportunities for the Tararua District if done right. Photo / Leanne Warr

The recovery would offer opportunities “if we do this right,” Collis said.

Toni Chapman, social lead for the recovery team, said every organisation in the room had a part to play in the Tararua District for the welfare of all those who had been and still were affected by the cyclone.

She said the aim of the hui was to get everyone’s views on what the needs were going forward as the district moved into the recovery phase.

Once they had that information, a plan could be developed for the immediate long-term regeneration of the community.

The cyclone was a district-wide event, those gathered were told.

“Even though we are concentrating on those that were impacted to begin with, we will also be identifying if there are any needs across the wider Tararua District as a whole,” Chapman said.

She said the plan was to establish a group to develop a social recovery plan.

Stephen Dunn, who acted as welfare manager during the emergency response, gave a recap of events from the day of the cyclone.

He said the highest level of rainfall recorded was at Ākitio at Toi Flat - 223 millimetres in a 24-hour period.

The primary impact of the heavy rain was around roading and, at its peak, there were 49 roads closed around the district.

“Many of our communities were cut off and bridges sustained damage,” Dunn said.

“Today, access remains a key issue [which is] ongoing.”

While the council was confident people could make their way to access services, for some it was now a much longer journey, with up to an hour added to trips.

“There is still a long way to go getting access to where it was pre-cyclone,” Dunn said.

The cyclone had a huge impact on the farming community, with issues identified such as animal welfare.

Satellite images showed a huge amount of scarring on the land across the district.

The emergency response included getting convoys out to the communities to engage with people, with 527 house visits in the district.

Dunn said he was happy that the response had dealt with all the immediate post-disaster needs.

“We know that everyone can get out from their home address somehow. We know that everyone is in housing.”

Dunn said some of the things they’d been hearing about were wellbeing concerns, with access being a big one, as well as health-related concerns and getting children to school. Getting stock on and off farms and keeping up with supplies such as fuel were also identified as issues.

There were two homes red-stickered due to slips and 16 that were yellow-stickered, with a lot of those being holiday homes.

Strategic manager Sandra James said the community was being kept at the centre of the recovery efforts.

She said people had been impacted in a number of ways, and a focus on that would help the district to get through.

People in the impacted communities needed to understand what was happening.

“We’ve got to bring everybody along on the journey so they can have confidence in recovery and that we’re doing the right things. And also so that they can be involved.”

James said needs were changing and there could be a range of things that could happen, such as another weather event, and they needed to be agile and flexible and to meet a range of diverse needs.

Part of the recovery was for all those at the hui to work collaboratively to develop plans and deliver them.