Rebuilding Awatoto: Cyclone-hit Napier business community looks towards resilient future

The small Hawke’s Bay settlement of Awatoto near Napier was crippled by Cyclone Gabrielle. A titan of industrialism for the city, its future initially looked bleak for businesses that bore the full brunt of the floods. Despite the odds, many are now returning, and they’re making sure they’re prepared for what’s to come.

A bomb site would’ve been the best way to describe the carnage at Napier’s main industrial area in the weeks after February 14, 2023.

Emergency response trucks rolled through heavy checkpoints at Waitangi, Awatoto and McLeod Rds, the threat of toxic waste from the water treatment plant and heavy-industry buildings looming.

Ten months on, the checkpoints are down and boiler suits are no longer needed, but the threat of flooding and other natural hazards remains for many of those businesses choosing to return.

So, how are they doing? And what is some of the work being done by this tight-knit business community as it looks to the future?

Crews working in hazmat suits in Waitangi Rd, Awatoto, in March after the area was deemed contaminated. Photo / Paul Taylor

Navigating the system

“There’s a lot of talking and not a lot of doing,” Woolworks Hawke’s Bay CEO Nigel Hales said, referring to the often-tedious process of working with local and central government on flood protection.

It’s been a long journey for Hales and his staff, whose premises are in Waitangi Rd.

The Woolworks rebuild has been one of the bigger ones in Hawke’s Bay, and the company has been in rebuild mode since March when they were allowed back on site.

“Our buildings came through well despite flood damage, but the consenting process requires us to rebuild to a one-in-1000-year event. We have to satisfy our insurance companies and make sure we can actually get insurance,” Hales said.

This is the reality for many businesses in the area, and many are banding together to make sure they really can build back better with what they describe as the Awatoto Industrial Action Group (AIAG).

“What we’re looking at is options for mitigating further risk to prevent the Awatoto area from future flooding. Obviously, you can’t have Napier’s main industrial area be at risk of flooding.

“There’s a lot of stakeholders involved when you think about the ratepayers.”

Hales said there were so far about eight businesses in the collective, and it included Unison and Napier City Council, whose critical assets of a substation and wastewater treatment plant lie at Awatoto.

Andrew Coleman, innovation manager at Woolworks, looks at the progress at the site 10 months on from Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Warren Buckland

“The group of businesses have gotten together and supported ourselves through this whole process. We’ve gotten to meet our neighbours which has been great,” Hales said.

The group has also employed a dedicated manager to help navigate the process and it is co-ordinating with Napier City Council, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, and the flood recovery manager.

But it’s purely an initiative spearheaded by the business owners.

“It’s our initiative. The stopbanks have been put back to a one-in-100-year capability, and Cyclone Gabrielle was a flood of one in 500 years. We need one-in-500-year protection,” Hales said.

“There’s no doubt there’s higher cost and a lot more conditions. Some of the occupiers down the street can’t get insurance so it’s a major issue for the area.

“This is where local government really need to step up and do their job to get some containment going on, and not just talk about it and draw models.”

Collegiality was important, Hales said, and now the momentum needed to be followed with action.

“Everybody has been working together really well, including the officials. We had fantastic support from the two local outgoing MPs and have been contacted by the incoming ones.

“We’ve now got to stop being windy and just get on with doing things, without being worried about being beaten to death over compliance.”

Aerial view of flooding at Awatoto in February. Photo / Supplied

‘I trust the big boys to look after the area’

Richard Nichol, of Nichol Glass and Aluminium, said he was much luckier than a lot of other nearby businesses.

While his building in Awatoto Rd still took significant damage and there was still more work to do, business operations resumed within six weeks.

“Ours is a brand-new workshop and we had concreted all the exterior. Also, we don’t have any neighbours, so we were able to get in here with diggers and a Bobcat straight away to be able to help clear the silt and sludge.

“Now we’re at the final hurdle. The building needs to be re-clad, and the silt trapped between needs to be removed.”

Nichol himself isn’t part of the working group, but has faith in the work it is doing on behalf of business owners.

“The people who are involved are generally with bigger industries and have more resources than us.

“I trust the big boys to look after the area because, obviously, they have a bigger investment than we have. I’m sure they will be pushing the council in the right direction for any remedial work.”

Richard Nichol, of Nichol Glass and Aluminium, has faith that the business community will push for flood protection outcomes. Photo / Warren Buckland

At different stages

Like Woolworks and Nichol Glass and Aluminium, many Awatoto businesses are at different stages of their rebuilding journey.

Ziwi’s $100 million mega pet food factory in Awatoto Rd had been open for only a matter of months when it was badly flooded in February.

The company managed to rebuild and get it operating again in July, holding on to its 120 staff during that process.

Agriculture company Ruminate in Waitangi Rd is also set to move back in soon, having been kindly lent an office space while its decimated property was rebuilt.

Wool carpet maker Bremworth in Waitangi Rd is still working through the insurance process and is yet to decide whether to rebuild and reopen its Awatoto plant, which employed about 150 people before the cyclone.

However, it is reopening in mid-January its dyehouse, which is operated by a team of about seven people.

Tony Gray, Ravensdown Napier works manager, said the company was back in full superphosphate production by the end of July in time to meet spring fertiliser demand.

“The recovery of our site and operations is testament to teamwork — whether that’s our Ravensdown team at Awatoto including contractors, or the Awatoto Industry Action Group, community representatives, local government and iwi — we all rallied together to turn things around,” he said.

“Our awesome team of passionate and focused people have absolutely transformed this place from what was quite frankly a debris-filled mess, to a place where people are energised and doing great work.”

Ravensdown Napier works manager Tony Gray at its Awatoto site. Photo / Ravensdown

Projects in motion

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council said it was fully supporting the work of the Awatoto Industrial Action Group and was working with it to make the area more resilient to flooding.

“We have commissioned a major review of the Heretaunga Plains Flood Control Scheme which currently protects the Awatoto Industrial area to a one-in-100 level, or 1 per cent chance of a flood occurring in any given year, and this was kicked off in June this year,” HBRC asset management group manager Chris Dolley said.

“We expect some preliminary insights from this work around the first quarter of 2024.”

The council has also commissioned a major review of the Awatoto Drainage Scheme and, through working with AIAG, has incorporated some options it says will provide higher levels of service for drainage.

A final report on this is expected by January.

“We have obtained Crown funding to upgrade cyclone repairs, and funding to replace both the Mission and Brookefields pump stations that provide drainage to the Awatoto area, and these projects will kick off in the new year.”

Repairs had been made to the existing pump stations and they were operating, Dolley said.

“We have supported AIAG to engage with engineering firm Pattle Delamore Partners to identify any quick wins to land drainage and this work is complete. HBRC and AIAG technical teams continue to collaborate on this work.”

“We, along with the Regional Recovery Agency, have supported AIAG to apply to the Crown for funding to improve flood resilience of the area.”

Mitchell Hageman joined Hawke’s Bay Today in late January. From his Napier base, he writes regularly on social issues, arts and culture, and the community. He has a particular love for stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.