Among those sessions was one at the East Otago Events Centre next week on Tuesday night, organised by the East Otago Catchment Group.
Gibson would be the main speaker, presenting alongside representatives from Civil Defence, the Rural Support Trust, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and FMG.
The event was funded by the catchment group’s integrated farm planning (IFP) fund - at the end of last year, it successfully obtained funding from MPI to run integrated farm planning workshops in East Otago over the next four years - with support from the Otago Catchment Community and MPI.
Catchment group coordinator Steph Scott said one of the workshops the group was looking at was being prepared for an adverse event.
After watching the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle in the North Island, the group decided it would be timely to hold it as a community event for East Otago farmers and lifestyle block owners.
“MPI were really supportive of this and it really has grown into what should be an interesting evening for our community,” she said.
When contacted, Gibson, who was “super pumped” about coming south, said the response to Cyclone Gabrielle had been “totally overwhelming”.
It had been horrific to see what farmers in the region had gone through. Getting infrastructure re-established, keeping animal welfare a priority and keeping farmer stress levels down had been a huge journey.
But it had brought communities together, something which, while less of an issue in rural communities, was not as strong as it once was, as widespread forestry in the East Coast meant the land supported fewer families.
In the recovery, there was an opportunity to “come together over some really big deal stuff” and it really highlighted the value that good catchment groups could have.
In the immediate aftermath of the cyclone, it was “just terrifying”. There were no roads and, once diggers were operational “to some degree”, people were driving utes through roads where there were tunnels of silt double the height of the utes.
The only food supplies were those dropped by helicopter, forestry slash had torn through fences and stock was wandering.
“Just seeing grown men crying, I’m not good at that. Just dealing with everyone’s emotional state,” he said.
“It’s very hard to describe. It was quite eerie. You were turning up, everyone’s saying they’re all right. They’re not,” he said.
Rivers and river flats were full of silt, fences were full of forestry slash and there was a stench of dead stock.
Crops were washed onto the beach - including tomatoes, pumpkins and carrots - which was littered with slash.
Being part of a catchment group was of “real benefit” when it came to a severe event, whether it was an earthquake, fire or flood - “or anything of that nature”.
Already there was someone in the role of leader or co-ordinator and you knew “all your figures up front”.
There was a complete contact list, and the exact amount of fencing was known, along with the likes of what tracks were in the area.
So when resources were available, the group was in a position to be able to take them, as the structure was ready to go with figures to justify the expenditure.
“As individual farmers, you can’t access that level of recovery funding,” Gibson said.
He was full of praise for the “incredible” work being done in the South with catchment groups, saying groups established on the East Coast were newer and they had been “picking the eyes” out of the southern model.
Afternoon sessions are to be held at Lake Hayes on June 22, Lake Hawea on June 26 and East Otago on June 27, while evening sessions will be held in Arrowtown on June 22, Lake Hawea on June 26, Waikouaiti on June 27 and Beaumont on June 28.
