Editorial: Building back better crucial after damaging floods

An 'island' farm near Glenduan. Photo / Tim Cuff

Editorial

Communities across the country have been left shaken by the damage caused by last week's wild weather. A great deal of hard work and much-needed support starts now.

The effort required to clear slips, stabilise ground and reopen roads in hard-hit areas such as the Tasman district will be immense. Water supply, power and cellphone coverage have also been affected.

Homes have also been badly damaged, with people's lives upended from Nelson to Wellington and Northland. Some houses have already been assessed as unsafe to return to.

About 1500 people in more than 500 houses had to evacuate their homes in upper South Island districts last week, before the skies finally cleared on Saturday.

Aerial photographs of the flooding in Nelson and Tasman showed how widespread and damaging it was, with farmland turning into muddy brown lakes.

Alongside the important efforts of emergency services, news reports and video footage have also highlighted impulsive good work from volunteers turning out to help neighbours and strangers alike.

In Nelson, volunteers set to work with wheelbarrows and garden tools clearing people's driveways close to the Maitai River.

A 75-year-old woman was plucked from her home on a flooded road south of Kaitaia in Northland by surf rescue volunteers in boats.

In the Far North, locals cleared a fallen tree south of Mangōnui which blocked a state highway in both directions, with more than a dozen vehicles stuck.

The warm response of people to help others they don't know - prepared to just pitch in - is always a positive sight in the midst of ruin and chaos, when communities have their backs to the wall.

It has been a regular part of the aftermath to natural disasters, noticeably in the Christchurch earthquakes.

But the sheer intensity of this event makes the clean-up a sizeable task not to be underestimated. The bill from one bad week would be in the tens of millions.

Both Marlborough Mayor John Leggett and Nelson Mayor Rachel Reese said the recovery in their areas - normally popular with tourists - would take years.

Waka Kotahi says all roads battered in the Marlborough Sounds will remain closed for some time.

The Nelson Tasman Civil Defence said at the weekend that the township of Collingwood in Golden Bay had been virtually cut off from the outside world, with road closures. It had also lost all phone, cellphone and internet coverage.

Kaitāia in Northland was similarly isolated at the height of the flooding.

The scale of the problems requires a comparable response from the Government and with other, more fortunate regions, lending a hand in practical ways. So far the Government has put $200,000 into the Nelson Tasman Mayoral Relief Fund.

It's also important that the concept of building back better - raised during the pandemic but applicable here too - doesn't get lost.

Efforts to strengthen flood-prone places are more urgent than ever to try to avoid future repeats. Areas with housing which have proved vulnerable to slips need reassessment.

More such extreme events where huge amounts of rainfall in a short space of time are coming. Insurers paid out a record $324 million on weather disasters for all of last year. Floods in March this year cost nearly $120 million.

Emergency help and community spirit is essential during and just after a disaster, but a smart approach and clear planning are needed to make the future more resilient.