Thirty years since Cyclone Bola battered Hawke's Bay

One of the many major slips on State Highway 2 - this at the Devil's Elbow. Photo / File

The lead story across the front page of the Daily Telegraph of March 8, 1988, was a stark and effective summation of the biggest weather story to emerge across the region in many years.

"Wairoa was split in two and almost completely isolated from the outside world today as Cyclone Bola smashed its way into northern Hawke's Bay."

It was 30 years ago, and yes, the word "smashed" was no exaggeration with the town's bridge being torn to pieces by the power of the high, surging water and the debris being carried by it.

It was the "cyclone season" and Bola had begun forming on February 24 near Fiji and had reached hurricane strength as it approached Vanuatu four days later.

The growing cyclone's southeasterly path was blocked by an anticyclone north of New Zealand and it was trapped — becoming almost stationary as it began to whip the eastern regions of Hawke's Bay, Gisborne and the East Cape.

It struck Hawke's Bay on March 7 and the rain was relentless, and damaging.

In parts of the region north of Napier up to 400mm was recorded, while inland from Tolaga Bay copped a peak of 916mm over the three days of the cyclone's peak.

With the rains came the winds and massive blasts of more than 100km/h tore down power lines, trees and ripped away roofs.

The torrential rain also sparked landslides, cut power and sewerage systems and closed several roads with states of emergency being declared in Wairoa, Gisborne and East Cape.

The most publicised "victim" of the cyclone was the loss of the Wairoa Bridge.

A 60m section of the bridge, which had served the town and provided the crucial link across to North Clyde since 1933, was torn away just before 6.30am on March 8.

Denys Caves, who was a Wairoa District councillor at that time, was one of only a couple of people to see the bridge break away "and float off like a big raft".

As the cyclone raged and worsened he was appointed as chief civil defence warden and as he lived close to the council chambers at that time was walking on the way there.

"The river was very high and there was a lot of flotsam and jetsam coming down."

He heard rumbling and cracking sounds and could see the bridge moving.

"It was groaning under all the pressure and then I realised it had started to go."

A civil defence emergency had been declared three hours earlier when one of the bridge piers was seen to be moving.

A water main which was attached and crossed the bridge burst and sent water hurtling at pressure skywards.

"Never see anything like it," Mr Caves said.

The mayor at the time, the late Cliff Owen, sparked immediate plans to get water supplies carted into the town because there was only about 12 hours water left in the reservoir.

He did not expect full supplies to be restored for about seven days.

"It was the loss of services that really hit," Mr Caves said.

"The phones, the water, the sewage — and the confusion that arose."

Phone lines, like the water supply, had been strung across the bridge so telecommunications with the rest of the world were out.

About 350 people had to be evacuated from northwestern areas of Wairoa — many from badly damaged homes and others from houses deemed vulnerable to rising river waters during the incoming tide.

Nearly all the roads out of Wairoa were blocked by great swathes of surface water or slips, and State Highway 2 between Napier and Wairoa was struck by "hundreds of slips".

Part of the Whirinaki Bluff came away and partially blocked the highway, while a major slip about 35km from Napier resulted in large trees crashing down a 30m high bluff and completely blocking the roadway.

It took several days to clear a path through.

The Napier-Taupo highway was also closed by slips.

But as Mr Caves said, it was chins up and press on as far as the Wairoa populace were concerned.

"The locals were wonderful. Everyone just kicked in."

One example was when a call went out for security and support work.

"The hands went up straight away."

Getting people across the river, including visitors who had been staying in Wairoa and needed to get to Napier, became a major issue.

"Small boats were crossing but they had to dodge the logs."

At one point a local fishing trawler owner used his boat as a ferry, and the day after the bridge collapse permission was given to use the undamaged railway bridge as an emergency "bypass" until a new bridge was constructed.

It cost about $600,000 and took three weeks to deck and build approaches to the rail bridge.

The Bola fallout saw an end to passenger train services out of Wairoa, and it would be three weeks before the freight services would resume.

"Within about 10 days most of the issues were pretty well fully addressed, but the roading took time," Mr Caves said.

Some commercial premises were affected and some businesses closed in the wake of the access cutbacks.

In the vicinity of the bridge restructuring of the commercial area took place, and while there was some initial concerns Mr Caves said in the long term most people saw it as a positive change.

And the town got a royal thumbs-up in 1970 when Her Majesty the Queen arrived to open the new bridge.

While it was one of the most dramatic scenes of damage and destruction wrought by the cyclone the bridge was not the only victim.

About 1800 farmers and more than 3600 hectares of farming and horticultural land were affected and the damage across Bola's eastern path was estimated to be about $90 million.

For Hawke's Bay, preliminary figures for flood damage totalled $23.1m.

Among the figures Hawke's Bay farm damage was listed at $7.5m, damage to county roads at $2m, the Napier-Gisborne rail line $3m, the Wairoa Bridge $3m and state highway damage at $3m.

During the height of the cyclone the Esk River changed its course — ripping out a new channel and taking land with it.

For the Brownlie family that meant losing 1.2ha of land and about $57,000 of grape vines.

The family, and friends, worked frantically to pick and save what grapes they could as further land slippage and loss into the newly scoured river channel was expected.

Jim Brownlie was reported at the time as being "heartbroken" by the loss because it had been too expensive to insure, and he and his sons had put so much time into planting and developing the area.

The horticulture industry was hit hard and it was estimated Hawke's Bay lost more than $500,000 worth of processed vegetable crops.

Hawke's Bay Process Growers Association chairman at that time, Norman Spiers, said Bola had turned the season's anticipated cropping into "a complete disaster".

One grower had lost more than half his crop of beans and tomatoes, while Heinz Wattie's lost about $30,000 of tomatoes.

The Vegetable Federation sent an executive officer from Wellington to check out the situation and the Ministry of Agriculture pledged a $5m compensation package for farmers.

John Ross was farming his property off the Waiatai Valley Rd near Wairoa when the cyclone arrived.

He had been watching its progress toward the country through forecasts and when the first drops of rain fell, then turned heavy, he simply said "oh god, here it comes".

The weather is the one ingredient to farming that can't be changed and in situations like Bola it was a case of "what can you do?"

But like others farmers across the region they prepared the best they could in terms of shifting stock away from vulnerable spots.

"We moved a lot of stock off the lowland areas which would be prone to flooding," he said.

He did lose a small number of stock, mainly sheep, but said some farmers further up Gisborne way and near main river areas were much worse affected.

He also lost flood gates and fencing, and there were slips and extensive silt debris left behind.

"And later on, it was May or June, after we had just cleaned up from Bola we had another weather event which was just as bad in our area."

Mr Ross, who bought the family farm the year before Bola and sold it in 2013, said it was a case of "one carries on".

"You learn from each event you get — where to place the fencelines so stock have access to escape floodwaters."

He said the Waiatai Valley was in a lowlands area and "you live with that and work around it".

In the wake of Bola he, like many other farmers, kicked off an erosion control planting programme to provide better slip protection.

It continued today.

Mr Ross said Cyclone Bola did create one positive in that it effectively set a standard for taking on and dealing with such major events.

Before Bola there was little in the way of planning for such things and they were not taken as seriously as they should have been.

"There was a change of thinking in how to farm on after something like that, and that was a good thing."