THE Rangitikei District Council was yesterday into the third day of visits by a survey team to flooded farms alongside the Turakina and Whangaehu Rivers. The visits will ultimately help the council understand first-hand the physical and emotional impacts of the July 7 storm. The team provides information on key contacts, writesup a survey form and takes photographs. They listen to farmers talk about how they intend to repair the damage to their land and how they think the impact of future floods can be reduced. "These are people whose high resilience is being tested to a superhuman extent," Rangitikei Mayor Bob Buchanan said. "To witness the destruction of the work done after the February 2004 floods is a very hard thing. One farming couple came close to drowning as they tried to drive their cattle to dry ground. "Another farmer watched ewes and lambs take flight as an Iroquois helicopter hovered about, mistaking the Turakina Beach Rd for the Whangaehu Beach Rd. "The lambs died, not being able to find their mothers. Some farmers find it difficult to talk at all about what has happened to their livelihood." Experts say farmers facing such difficulties usually find going away for at least a day or two means they return with renewed vigour. Where it can, the council is facilitating time out. The council has also committed to holding, before the end of this month, one or two public meetings to provide an opportunity for farmers alongside the Turakina and Whangaehu rivers to share their views with both the district council and Horizons Regional Council. "These floods are a reminder of how critical it is for communities and councils to work together," Dorstan Hayman, acting chief executive said. "Knowing precisely what each can and cannot do goes to the heart of survival in any emergency." The council will be using the completed survey forms from the visits to provide an overall impact assessment of the floods in the two river systems. This will be the basis for more detailed analysis by Federated Farmers and for the deployment of the Government's Enhanced Task Force Green programme.
