Residents in Northland’s Ōakura, hit by flooding for the second time in less than a week, are contemplating leaving the area as they clean up again.
The coastal area northeast of Whangārei was badly hit by flooding and slips from Sunday’s deluge, then again by flooding on Wednesday.
Hundreds of people in Ōakura, Teal Bay, Bland Bay, Mōkau, Ngaiotonga and Whangaruru are now effectively cut off, thanks to a giant slip on Russell Rd at Helena Bay, which brought down pine trees, dirt and a boulder estimated to be 100 tonnes.
The only access in or out is a windy, unsealed, storm-impacted track through Kaiikanui Rd and Whananaki North Rd. A Kaiikanui Rd checkpoint will screen motorists and only let locals in.
Whangārei Mayor Ken Couper said the affected community being cut off was of major concern and he was unable to give a timeline for how long it would take to fix.
He said it might take weeks, as it needed to be dealt with from its top side.
Geotechnical experts were working to investigate repair options, with heavy machinery needed to get a handle on its size and features, he said.
A slip near the same area in 2007 took six months to repair.
Couper said civil defence and emergency services were working to make sure people received help as required, with a state of emergency still in place for Whangārei district.
Helicopters could be used to take people out to emergency medical help if needed, he said.
Ian Webster, who has lived in Ōakura since 2014, had around 1m of water through his place on Sunday. While his top floor was not damaged, virtually everything else was, including furniture, cars and a caravan.
“I just happened to look out the window and everything was a lake,” he said.
Webster said while Wednesday’s flooding was not as bad, it still added insult to injury, pouring more mud and water on items and areas that had already been cleaned.
He is disappointed Whangārei District Council has, for many years, refused to build a wetland as designed by local residents, with recent roadworks making the area like a “big swimming pool”, he said.
“They need to build the wetland or the council needs to buy all these houses out,” he said, referring to about a dozen flood-prone houses on Ōakura Rd, near Wharua Rd.
While Webster lost many items – including a car not fully insured – he was extremely grateful to the team at Shaw Motorcycles in Whangārei, who helped get his classic Harley Davidson clear of water and working.
“Ōakura is the perfect place, except for when it rains.”
Webster’s neighbours Donna and Paul Kerridge also lost a large number of items at the bottom of their two-storey house.
Donna Kerridge is a rongoā Māori practitioner who had precious taonga, literature, ancient books, kete and carvings kept at her house. Any that survived Sunday’s floods were destroyed by floodwaters and sewage on Wednesday, she said.
Members of Te Papa museum rang her on Thursday to advise how to preserve some of the literature, advising her to get the water off straight away and put the items in the freezer. She didn’t have the heart to tell them that wasn’t possible, with everyone’s freezers being flooded.
“They were just being proactive and helpful. I didn’t want to say ‘it’s gone’.”
Donna Kerridge said the floods were a time to reassess priorities. She couldn’t commit to staying in the area.
Other Ōakura residents were happy with the work Whangārei District Council did after Sunday’s flooding to help them prepare for Wednesday.
Greg and Debbie Brough, whose bottom storey and garage were also flooded on Sunday, were able to use sandbags to keep the worst of the water out on Wednesday.
They were also pleased the council had provided free skip bins so they could throw out damaged items – which for them included full fridges and freezers and furniture.
Greg Brough said he lost his ute in Sunday’s flooding, along with his tractor and quad bike. He felt a weather warning on Sunday would have been better than the warning residents received on Wednesday night.
In nearby Mōkau, resident Donna Ruka said she was glad the flooding on Wednesday wasn’t as bad as the torrent that swept under her house and over her solar panels on Sunday.
She was grateful to Ngātiwai that she could stay at Mōkau Marae, across the road, on Wednesday night. But she admitted it was an anxious time watching the water levels rise and a sudden relief when they subsided.
Green MP Hūhana Lyndon, who has been visiting whānau in Whangaruru, said it could be a “long road to recovery” for some.
“Not all whānau are insured, and at the moment, the welfare checks are underway assessing damage.”
People had lost cars, property had been damaged and many were isolated and cut off.
Lyndon said she had requested for fuel to be brought out to the area.
She was still concerned about the threat of gastro bugs amid a collapse of the wastewater system in the Ōakura area.
Couper acknowledged the two-stage flooding at Ōakura was worse than Cyclone Gabrielle for local residents.
The Government will be approached to help fund repairs, including the Helena Bay hill slip, with the total costs expected to be significant.
Couper said his message to affected communities was to continue to pull together.
“Lean on each other. Keep up the co-operation demonstrated so far.”
In other parts of Northland, Whangaroa was also hit hard on Wednesday, Acting Far North Mayor Chicky Rudkin said.
Matauri Bay campers had to be evacuated on Wednesday evening as a precautionary measure following a slip, she said.
They were offered a safe space at the nearby marae and have “great community support”.
Rudkin was pleased with how smoothly things had run, and said it seemed whānau were taking heed of advice and not taking risks.
She said the message for visitors was that the Far North was very much “still open” for Northland Anniversary weekend, but there would be inaccessible areas.
In Kaipara, Mayor Jonathan Larsen said his district had fared well, with the impact being less than Cyclone Gabrielle and the Mangawhai flooding later the same year.
Just over 20 roads had flooding or debris and just one remained closed in Mangawhai as of Thursday afternoon.
Dargaville, which was susceptible to flooding with the high tide, had water nearing shop fronts in the town centre on Wednesday, but Larsen said the flow from the catchments was slowing down on Thursday.