‘Really devastating’ - digging deep to clean up Motueka flood damage

Aerial photos show extensive flooding in Riwaka, near Motueka. Photo / Supplied

By Nick James of RNZ

Motueka locals are digging deep to put their lives back together and raise money for their neighbours, as the region reels after severe flooding.

Civil Defence has called it the worst flood in nearly 150 years, and the Nelson Tasman region remains in a state of emergency.

Blue Malosso, her husband and their two young children had only moved to the Motueka Valley six months ago from Australia.

The pair had put their savings into a tiny home which was completely gutted and dragged 400m from its section by the Motueka River.

Flood-damaged furniture lies in the front yard of a house along the Motueka Valley. Photo / Tim Cuff

“Walls, doors, everything sort of came off the house. You’re finding broken bunk beds in the middle of orchards, beds that your kids slept in two nights ago, fridges, just everything.”

On the day of the flooding, just over a week ago, they watched the river surge in height, and after they had dropped their children off to safety in town, they tried to save as much as they could.

“Getting in water waist deep, trying to push logs away from the house and then we came in to see what’s behind us Saturday morning.”

Flooding at SH6 Kotahu. Photo / Supplied

She said it would almost feel easier if it was all swept away completely, rather than finding their belongings strewn around nearby fields and orchards.

“You do just want to fall apart and sort of, you know, cry and not get back up, but when you’ve got two young kids, you sort of don’t have that luxury.

“No matter how devastated you feel.”

She said sentimental things have been lost forever.

“Things that meant a lot to me, like clothes that you brought your newborn kids home from the hospital in, nowhere to be seen.

“I mean, that’s really devastating.”

Malosso said people have been offering clothes and shoes for her children, and others offering to collect the bits of their ruined home for scrap.

Flooding at Thomas Bros Orchard in Riwaka, near Motueka. Photo / Supplied

Nearby resident Tamara Jenkins owned a piece of land near where the Motueka River burst its banks.

When RNZ approached her for comment, she was cutting down a fence taken out by fast-moving water during the initial rain event.

“So, the river came up over the road and has taken out quite a chunk of our fence and the one going up into the paddock there.

“It’s never done that before.”

A trampoline lies ruined in a paddock, a reminder of the force of last week's flood of the Motueka River. Photo / Tim Cuff

She said the fast-moving water was “really scary” and had changed the nearby landscape.

“The river has taken off a massive chunk of the corner down there, which it has never been up that high.”

Twenty-four-year-old Kahu Stringer had lived in the Motueka Valley for his whole life.

He was chopping up forestry slash that had come down in the bad weather to turn into firewood.

Stringer said the storm was the worst he had ever seen in the area.

“Some people can’t fully clean their property unless they got a digger because you can’t drive a vehicle on it.

“It’s all just river silt all over everyone’s property.”

He said it was hard to see the damage the flooding had caused.

Throughout the region, businesses and community groups have offered fundraisers, free meals and a room for the night.

The Hotel Motueka’s fundraiser on Saturday night was a full house.

General manager Vince Sibbald said locals turned out and dug deep, adding to the thousands of dollars they’ve raised in the past week.

In total, the business raised nearly $7000 for residents affected by flooding.

Sibbald said they had also let people whose homes were damaged stay for free, with about 35 people sleeping there since the flooding began.

“We’ve got some people here, they’re just thankful they’re warm, they’re dry and they’re safe, that’s our main focus.”