Haste and accuracy needed to assess future of Hawke’s Bay’s cyclone-hit properties

Cyclone Recovery Minister Grant Robertson expressed the need for early decisions on future use of some of the land ravaged in last month's disaster. Photo / Warren Buckland

The Government and insurance industry will soon know the future of land devastated in Cyclone Gabrielle and how to avoid pitfalls that clogged courts after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

The determination was expressed on Wednesday by Minister of Finance and of Cyclone Recovery Grant Robertson at Omahu Marae, the busy hub of a community smashed by the cyclone on February 14, alongside the Ngaruroro River between Napier and Hastings.

He said the Cyclone Taskforce, chaired by Sir Brian Roche, is working with local government and insurance companies to “build a picture” of high-risk areas so we can understand the scale of impact and what this means for rebuilding”.

He stressed it doesn’t mean that buildings currently red-stickered or the land they’re on won’t be able to be occupied.

The insurance sector has agreed to provide the task force with a “consolidated view” of areas assessed as high risk within the next week.

Once the information is pulled together there can be agreement on the next steps “by the beginning of April”, he said.

It would be less than three months after the cyclone, which he says compares with four months before a similar stage was reached in the example of the Christchurch earthquake.

“I want the risk assessments completed as fast as possible and I will keep pushing for that to be the case.”

Robertson was at the marae with Minister of Housing Megan Woods and Associate Minister of Housing and Minister of Internal Affairs Barbara Edmonds on the latest of numerous ministerial visits to Hawke’s Bay since the cyclone more than five weeks ago.

Also in Hawke’s Bay on Wednesday was Minister of Maori Development and Associate Minister of Housing Willie Jackson, who was told in Wairoa the near-isolated district has ready-to-go projects that could be accelerated to quickly get people back into homes in the area – where 30 per cent of homes were damaged, and 150 households had been displaced.

Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa is seeking a Government commitment to fund the first two years of the Tātau Tātau Housing Recovery Programme, and to work with Tātau Tātau in good faith to deliver the longer-term programme, which would get 140 homes built within two years, create training and jobs, and underpin an iwi managed retreat from flood prone areas.

Chair Leon Symes told Jackson the need in Wairoa is urgent, saying “with winter just over two months away, we need to show our community that real help is on the way”.

“Iwi have demonstrated the ability to respond quickly to the needs of our whole community and we have projects ready to address the issues that Cyclone Gabrielle has compounded,” he said.

“We can accelerate these with additional government support.”

Jackson’s itinerary also included a visit to homes devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle and the severely damaged Takitimu Marae.

“Even before Cyclone Gabrielle, Wairoa had an escalating housing crisis, punctuated by older, poor quality housing and increasing unaffordability,” Symes said, adding it had been holding back Wairoa’s prospects for growth, and affecting the health and wellbeing of many of its people.