Mangakuri Station farm manager Jeremy Crosse surveys flood damage after heavy rain in Central Hawke's Bay. Photo / RNZ, Alexa Cook
By Alexa Cook and Morning Report of RNZ
A rural community in Central Hawke’s Bay is reeling after flooding wiped out fencing, culverts, winter crops, roads and even animals.
About 240mm of rain fell in the Omakere and Kairakau area in 30 hours from early morning on Tuesday, April 21, which locals say was worse than the devastating Cyclone Bola in 1988.
The Mangakuri River winds its way gently through the 1300ha Mangakuri Station, but when it rains, this picturesque stream is a raging torrent. There’s carnage everywhere – fences and water systems are washed away, paddocks and crops are knee deep in mud and debris, and logs are piled up against the bridge.
Farm manager Jeremy Crosse couldn’t believe how high and how quickly the river rose last week.
“This is definitely the worst I’ve had in nearly six years, just damage-wise, the intensity, the rainfall,” Crosse says. “It’s hard, but we’ll move on.”
His precious kale crop was being saved to feed out in winter, when it was needed most, but now, with silt covering the roots, Crosse has to graze it immediately.
“It’s a case of use it before you lose it,” he said. “It’s going to rot, and we can’t afford the crop to rot away and not have it for winter, so we may as well feed it out now.”
The floodwaters have ruined more than 90% of the station’s flat productive land.
“It’s really put a lot of pressure on our farming system,” he says. “These flats are really our engine room and to not have that... there’s probably 100ha of unproductive flats now.
“It’s a big hit for the system.”
He’ll likely have to sell off stock earlier than planned and buy in supplementary feed. Based on previous flooding, Crosse estimates the financial cost of this one at about $100,000.
“The clean-up is going to be the biggest part... being able to farm around this mess again. Support is huge and it can be quite lonely sometimes.”
His farm consultant has helped Crosse devise a plan, which includes using virtual fencing “Halter” collars on cows, to reduce the amount of fencing needed in flood-prone areas.
He said five big floods in six years take their toll, but they’re trying to stay positive.
“I’ve done it time and time again,” Crosse says. “It somewhat gets easier, but mentally, it’s pretty challenging, and physically, it’s very challenging.”
He says more warnings are helpful for farmers, as there was little warning with this flood compared to Cyclone Vaianu, and all they can do otherwise is have plans in place to move stock and reduce fencing in areas that may get washed away.
“It’s happened before and it’ll happen again – we’ve just got to make a plan,” he says. “We get smarter, as we farm through more of these events.”
A few kilometres upstream lies Waipari Station, which received nearly double the rainfall in some areas compared to 2023’s Cyclone Gabrielle. It took a direct hit from the recent flooding, which caused widespread damage to crops, paddocks, fences and culverts, and lightning split a gum tree next to the house.
Henry Warren grew up on the farm and says three years of cleaning up and re-fencing after Cyclone Gabrielle had just been finished. Now, they feel they’re back at square one again.
“That’s a real kick in the guts. We were just starting to build back up again and get back on track, then it all takes it away again.
“It makes you stop and wonder, ‘Why do we bother?’, and I’m pretty early in my career, it’s not flash.”
Much of the farm’s winter grazing is now covered with silt or pugged, new fences are ruined and at least four sheep drowned.
“Jeremy picked up four of my ewes,” Warren says. “We haven’t got the mob in to count yet – I’m dreading it a little bit.
“They were out the back with hills either side. I was expecting them to walk up out the way, but they didn’t sadly.”
Insurance for floods is “pretty tricky”, he says.
“There is a certain amount, but the excess is really high. We do have stock insurance, but again, excess really high... about $5000 to $6000.”
Henry is now looking at major policy changes on farm to try to safeguard against future floods.
“Rather than finishing lambs, maybe we’ll keep more to hill breeding country, which is a real shame.
“It’s tricky to work out what the next step will be to fight against it,” he says. “We’ve always worked on metric of work with Mother Nature, not against her, but she can be a bit annoying at times.”
Down the road, the 100-year-old Omakere Hall is in a sad state. It’s been closed since last year, because of problems with mould after Cyclone Gabrielle flooding, and during Tuesday’s flood it filled with water yet again.
Omakere Hall committee chairman Gus Bell tells RNZ the floodwaters came up about 100mm inside, enough to ruin the floor.
“It’s mainly silty mud and water,” he says. “We’ve managed to get insurance.
“We’ll have to replace the flooring and some of the interior walls up to a certain height, the way the water has absorbed into the panelling.”
The community is determined to save it.
“It’s a great hall, and it’d be a shame to see it disintegrate or be left unkept,” he said.
The hall has flooded numerous times in its 100 years, as it sits in a low-lying area, but the hall committee is considering lifting it on to higher piles to protect against future floods.
“We’re definitely looking at that,” Bell says. “We’ll hopefully look to finding some grants and see if we can raise some funds to raise the hall.
“It needs to come up half a metre to really make it floodproof for the future.”
- RNZ