Source: Radio New Zealand
A large hole has opened up at the Lake Ferry Road bridge cutting off communities in South Wairarapa. RNZ / Mary Argue
Some isolated Wairarapa residents are gutted they are cut off from their livelihoods and emergency services after a destructive storm ripped through the region.
Torrential rain and widespread flooding on Sunday and Monday has washed out the Lake Ferry Road bridge over the Turangaui River – cutting off settlements in Ngawi, Lake Ferry and Cape Palliser.
While crews were preparing to fix the bridge today, the South Wairarapa District Council said that now will not happen today.
Fisherman Lance Maindonald said the timing of the bridge washout could not be worse.
He was meant to be pulling up crayfish, but found himself trapped on the wrong side of the road.
“Bit of a kick in the guts because we’re coming towards the end of crayfish season too, so that costs a lot of money too if you don’t have all your quota caught,” Maindonald said.
Floodwaters have gouged out about a three metre hole in the bridge.
Maindonald spoke with contractors today, and he reckoned repairs to the Lake Ferry Road bridge could take up to three days.
He said this made things difficult for people on the coast.
“I’ve got me son that lives out there in a bach, so we’re just getting them to get their list together, we can chuck supplies over the bridge, keep everyone tickety-boo until we can get access down to the next bridge.”
An RNZ reporter on the scene said this afternoon locals have formed a human chain via a patch of concrete which had not been washed away, and were passing bread, eggs and nappies across the other side.
A South Wairarapa District Council spokesperson said emergency teams were working to get more supplies to the cut off communities.
Ngawi chief fire officer Kerry Hayes said he was concerned about access in an emergency.
“Especially if you need paramedics to come out, how are they going to get here – it’s a helicopter at this stage – so that’s always a little bit of a concern if the roads have been cut off.”
Hayes said residents were a little apprehensive and they needed to be prepared.
Meanwhile, the Hurupi bridge – located further along the South Wairarapa coast – has also been damaged.
Emergency controller Simon Taylor said the main priority for teams today had been contacting isolated residents.
“We just need to understand, are those communities safe? Have they got sufficient supplies to keep them going for seven to 10 days, and until we can actually get roads reopened.”
More than 1000 people are still without power in Wairarapa, and about 2300 in the Wellington region.
In Wellington’s southern suburb of Makara, resident Mike Hanning had his power cut after fierce winds tore down power lines on Takura Gorge Rd overnight on Sunday.
He said the loose lines were dangerous.
“The next pole down three of the four lines are off completely, and are just laying in the paddock, and then we’ve got one line draped across the road that is actually dropped by probably about three metres in the middle, and it’s actually getting hit by the likes of the school bus and trucks that are going passed.”
Hanning said he did not know when his power would be back on, but he had borrowed a generator to get by.
“Thanks to a generous neighbour, we got that last night, otherwise we’d have a freezer full of food that’s going to have to be dispersed.”
Wellington Electricity said it hoped to restore power for most people by this evening.
But it said some fixes to individual properties may not be restored until the end of the week.
Hutt Valley residents spent the morning cleaning up after the Waiwhetu stream became a “raging torrent” yesterday.
On Monday morning, people in nearby Heather Grove people were told to self evacuate if they felt unsafe.
BJ Rauhihi said it was “panic stations” – as the stream broke its banks and water began to swamp the area early in the morning.
“It just started getting worse and worse and then you could see it was starting to fill up the rest of the street but when you look down there, yeah it was like a raging torrent really.”
Chris Kaye said she was helping to clear bark off the street this afternoon.
She said the storm was pretty scary, and scattered a lot of debris on the ground.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
