Source: Radio New Zealand
Last week the helicopters assisted with the evacuation of flood-affected residents on the East Coast. Supplied / Byron Glover
Food and fuel are being dropped by helicopter into upper North Island communities left isolated following recent storms.
Slips have shut roads and cut off parts of eastern Bay of Plenty and Tai Rāwhiti, disrupting the flow of goods and transport.
The Waioweka Gorge was shut on 16 January after heavy rain caused about 40 slips.
One of the slips in the gorge area. Supplied
Rural Support Trusts across Northland, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty and Tai Rāwhiti are set to receive an additional $200,000 from the government, announced on Tuesday, to assist with recovery efforts.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he was advised there were around 500 people as of Tuesday who had been displaced by the storms.
The regional coordinator for Bay of Plenty Rural Support Trust, Jodie Craig, said road access was difficult in parts of the area, particularly at the eastern end.
“State Highway 35 is closed and then the Waioweka Gorge is closed, so then the only way to get to Gisborne and up that way is through State Highway 5. So yeah, this eastern Bay is quite impacted with the cut-off of roads.”
The charitable trust works closely with local councils and Civil Defence to ensure farmers, growers and rural people get the help they need.
Craig said the hardest hit areas, like Te Araroa and Pāpāmoa, were “very badly affected”.
She said while there had not been many feed supply issues due to the wet summer, but demand for support was ongoing.
“When you go look at a lot of the paddocks in the area, they are not brown, they’re not dead, so that’s good news,” she said.
“But there are impacts from the water, as well. But that might take time. There could be maize issues down the line with the wet soil.
“And hopefully the kiwifruit are OK, so we’re waiting to see if that water has dissipated because they can’t have water under their vines for very long.”
Craig said the trust’s thoughts were with the local families who have lost loved ones during the floods, and it was also helping provide psychosocial support with government agencies.
The New Zealand Transport Agency said it estimated about 1000 more truck loads of debris around the Waioweka Gorge needed to be removed from the area, and it was too early to know when it would be re-opened.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
