Ohope homes 'red-stickered'

Three Ohope homes have been "red-stickered" following Saturday's deluge of rain, including the home where 17-year-old Hugh Biddle lost his life.
Whakatane District Council chief executive Diane Turner said the home of Rob Shaw, the house immediately to the right of Mr Shaw's home (from the road) and another property had been deemed uninhabitable by council inspectors.
At a briefing yesterday Ms Turner said 70mm of rain had fallen on Saturday morning with 40mm of that occurring between 11am and 12pm.
"This was high intensity rainfall that caused out systems to be inundated with water," Ms Turner said.
"The rainfall caused 10 slips on the Westend escarpment, and one potential slip and a debris flow along Muriwai Drive [the Heads]."
The two Muriwai Drive homes have been served with orange stickers, meaning their owners can live there but under short-period entry and are required to self-evacuate if there is heavy rain.
This brings the total of orange-stickered Muriwai Drive homes to four as two were stickered due to a large slip that came down in August last year.
Ms Turner said, as at yesterday afternoon, Muriwai Drive, Stanley Rd and Herepuru Rd remained closed.
"Engineers have said the causes of the slips in the area are due to weathering escarpments at both Westend and Whakatane," Ms Turner said.
"Neither of these escarpments are particularly stable and, coupled with the rainfall we have experienced this year, are responsible for the slips.
"The Eastern Bay has already had its average annual rainfall this year and we are only in June."
She said vegetation growing on the escarpments was all of a similar age, which added to the cyclical nature of slips.
"Vegetation provides protection but the trees, which started growing at a similar age, start to become weak and die at the same time also."
Ms Turner said most of the escarpments at Westend were under private ownership and council would be happy to work with landowners and the Earthquake Commission in pruning or getting rid of trees.
"We have never declined a request to prune or remove a tree if it has been deemed a safety risk.
"At the request of some Westend residents we are currently preparing a report to look at a number of escarpment issues."
She said she understood two people had lost their lives due to slips at Westend between 1940 and 1960.
Ms Turner spoke of the number of significant rain events the Eastern Bay has experienced in the past 12 months.
"Council's stormwater scheme was designed with a return period and its effectiveness has decreased.
"There are pumps that need to be upgraded and we are looking at that now."
Ms Turner said council, along with Environment Bay of Plenty, had begun a detailed catchment-wide study looking at a long-term plan to manage stormwater.
Meanwhile Mr Biddle's tangi is being held today at Te Rewarewa Marae in Ruatoki. Mr Biddle's body was taken to Trident High School on Sunday so former classmates could farewell him, before moving on to Ruatoki.