Source: Radio New Zealand
Ōakura Bay Reserves Board member Malcolm Devereux, left, and chairman Glenn Ferguson mop out the devastated community hall. RNZ / Peter de Graaf
A nail-biting, mostly single-lane gravel road will remain the key lifeline linking a storm-battered Northland town with the outside world for the next eight to 14 weeks.
That’s how long the Whangārei District Council expects it will take to clear a monster slip at Helena Bay Hill on Russell Road, the main road between Ōakura and Whangārei.
The slip came down on Wednesday at the end of a four-day deluge that soaked the district’s northeast coast.
The tiny settlement of Punaruku, for example, recorded as much rain each hour between 3am and 5am on 18 January as most places in Northland get in the entire month.
A washed-out bridge on the road from Ōakura north to Russell reopened after temporary repairs on Saturday night, but the only direct link to Whangārei – via Pigs Head Road and Kaiikanui Road – is a back route open to local residents, recovery workers and emergency services only.
‘Lifeline road’ remains steep, narrow and unsealed
Nena Rogers, owner of Ōakura Bay Store, said the closure of the main road to Whangārei would hit the business hard.
“It’ll definitely slow us down. People won’t be able to come here for fishing on the weekends and things like that. It’s our busy season, so it will have a huge impact on us further down the track. We have to make money in the summertime to get through the winter, so we can carry on the service we’ve provided for the past 30 years.”
Ōakura Bay Store owner Nena Rogers says the closure of the main road will hit her business hard. RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Rogers said the past year had already been tough due to the economic climate and a drop in visitors in the lead-up to Christmas.
However, she said the town, and the store, had survived without the main access road in the past.
In 2007 a huge chunk of road fell away at Helena Bay Hill – not far from the current slip – leaving Ōakura cut off for almost four months.
“So we’ve been there before,” she said.
Since last week’s slip, council contractors had urgently cleared and graded Kaiikanui Road, and installed traffic lights on a particularly nerve-racking 800-metre section.
However, the “lifeline road” remained steep, narrow and unsealed, with sheer drop-offs in many places.
The main road to Ōakura has disappeared under a massive slip at Helena Bay Hill. Supplied / Ngātiwai Trust Board
Rogers said it was fortunate the shop was stocked up for summer when the storm hit, though she was now starting to see serious gaps in her supplies.
Flour, tea, coffee and even chocolate were among the essentials starting to run low.
Her wholesaler had pledged a big delivery this week, using small trucks that could get through Kaiikanui Road.
Rogers said Ōakura had seen huge support from suppliers, the council and tradies, many of whom had baches in the settlement.
She had lost very little stock to the flood, mostly because she had spent the past 30 years preparing.
That included improving drainage, ensuring nothing was stored at ground level, and sandbagging.
Flooded properties at Ōakura Bay as seen from the air. Supplied / Ngātiwai Trust Board
The biggest problem was sewage backing up when the treatment plant failed.
Unclear how isolated Ōakura will fare for medical services
Rogers said it was not yet clear how Ōakura, which was isolated even in normal times, would fare for medical services.
Before the deluge a health clinic operated once a fortnight with a doctor visiting once a month.
“During the storm we had a lady who needed staples removed from an operation, and they were going to fly the staple remover out from Whangārei because there was no road at that time. But they did manage to get her out in an ambulance,” Rogers said.
“We’ve got a couple of nurses living out here, so that makes a difference, and I do minor stuff. I fixed up a man’s hand who’d taken a great lump out of it. We couldn’t get hold of anybody but my mother was a nurse, so I know what I’m doing.”
She said locals were “pretty resilient” and used to looking after themselves, but reality was starting to sink in.
“When something like this happens, you pick yourself up and you go and do things. But I’ve noticed people are looking drawn and tired. It’s pretty sad, really.”
Rogers welcomed the news that Ngaiotonga Bridge had reopened, restoring road access from the north.
However, for people heading to Whangārei, that was a long and costly detour, requiring either a trip on the Russell ferry – a car costs $18.50 each way plus a fee for each passenger – or braving the rugged and flood-prone Waikare Road.
Only essential vehicles, full-time residents can use Kaiikanui Road
Whangārei District Council has said it would only allow essential vehicles and full-time residents to use Kaiikanui Road.
Rogers agreed with keeping sightseers off the lifeline road, but believed bach owners should be allowed.
They needed to check and clean up their properties, and in some cases, salvage what was left.
“But if you’re just coming out here because you want to have a look, turn around, because you just might end up at the bottom of one of those slips.”
Rongoā Māori practitioner Donna Kerridge attempts to rescue raranga (weaving) soaked by floodwaters that swept through the ground floor of her Ōakura home. RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Just down the road from the shop, Sunday’s flash flood rose to chest-height in the ground floor of Donna Kerridge’s home.
The flood submerged priceless books and notes the rongoā Māori practitioner had collected over the years, as well as woven kete and cloaks.
Kerridge said the months-long closure of the main road would affect her financially.
“I’ll probably lose quite a bit of contract work, because I won’t be able to go backwards and forwards, but that’s just money. Also, we’ll lose conveniences, things like fresh milk, but conveniences are not important,” she said.
“I guess the challenge will be more for family who can’t come and see us, who are concerned about our welfare. It’s going to be hard for them.”
Kerridge said people had held up well so far but she expected the isolation would take a toll.
“After a while, we might start to get grumpy. Right now we’re very grateful. The mood is one of gratitude that nobody got hurt. I think we’re still very much in stunned mullet, grateful mode, but the shine will wear off shortly. I expect we’re going to have a slump in our emotions.”
A clean-up of the slip-damaged Ōakura Community Hall is on hold until it can be assessed by council engineers. RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Self-sufficiency, resilience essential skills for Ōakura residents
Key lessons for Ōakura residents from the storm included the need to be more self-sufficient and able to fend for themselves for extended periods of time.
If a disaster were to hit Whangārei as well, Ōakura would be well down the list of priorities for help – which Kerridge said was understandable, given Whangārei’s much greater population.
“So we need an extra element of resilience,” she said.
Emergency access routes also had to be considered, she said.
Whangaruru had its own Coastguard vessel, but in a storm like last week’s the sea was too rough to put it to use as emergency transport.
As for Kaiikanui Road, Kerridge said she wouldn’t be using it in a hurry.
“The stories I’ve heard are enough to make me say, if I had a baby that was unwell, I might use it. For anybody else, I’m sorry, but don’t ask me to take you out over that road.”
Mark and Victoria Seymour, 13, work to clean up the stinky, stinky silt that has engulfed the long-time family bach. RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Around the corner, on the Ōakura waterfront, Tauranga’s Mark Seymour and daughter Victoria, 13, were scraping a sticky, stinky layer of silt from their front lawn.
Seymour said the bach had been in the family for 42 years, in a “magic” spot offering great views, good fishing, and a safe beach for the kids to swim and kayak.
He said the floodwaters had been about half a metre deep through the ground floor, trashing six beds, fridges, a washing machine, and other belongings.
Slips from the hillside behind the bach had blocked stormwater drains, turning waterfront properties into one large brown lake.
“The water itself is a problem, but it’s the silt that has washed down from the slips that’s been a really tricky thing to work with. Very, very sticky,” he said.
Seymour said even a high-pressure water blaster had little impact on the silt, so he was now scraping and shovelling by hand.
“I’ve probably dumped about 30 wheelbarrow loads now, and it’s just a sticky, goopy mess of silt.”
The town’s sewer network had been overwhelmed by floodwaters and septic tanks had overflowed, causing other problems.
“Now the sun’s out and the wind’s blowing, things are starting to heat up and dry out, and the stench is pretty hard to bear.”
On the surface normality appears to be returning to Ōakura, but it’s a different story for home owners cleaning up flood-hit properties or trying to get in and out of the isolated settlement. RNZ / Peter de Graaf
However, he counted himself lucky – at least three nearby homes had been badly damaged by slips.
“These are families that have been here 60 years. That’s a long, long tenure, and it’s pretty hard to see people you’ve grown up with go through that.”
Seymour was not fazed by Kaiikanui Road, saying it was “definitely” a challenging, narrow, winding, metal road, but it was similar to the access road used in his grandparents’ day.
However, he urged people thinking about taking a tiki tour to Ōakura to leave the road to those who needed it most, such as recovery workers or locals trying to get to their jobs in Whangārei.
Like Rogers and Kerridge, Seymour said he’d been struck by Ōakura’s resilience.
“We’ll carry on and get stronger. We’ll learn from it, and next time, we’ll be even stronger. But I think it’s a good wake up call, to look at what’s happened and what could be done in future to avoid it, like maintenance on drains and roads, that kind of thing. It’s only going to get worse as time goes by with the storm intensities we’re seeing.”
Kerridge said continuing to live in a place like Ōakura, where access was fragile and beset by so many pinch points, would mean making compromises.
“And I think the people here are resigned to that. We don’t get to live the life that we did a week ago. It requires adjustment, and I think we’re adjusting really well.”
State of Emergency for Hikurangi-Coastal Ward extended
On Tuesday afternoon Whangārei Mayor Ken Couper extended the State of Emergency in the Hikurangi-Coastal Ward for another seven days – but lifted it for the rest of the Whangārei District.
Couper said a localised State of Emergency would allow the council to deploy extra support quickly, if needed.
The Hikurangi-Coastal Ward includes Ōakura and Whangaruru, the worst affected areas in Northland during last week’s storm.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
