Source: Radio New Zealand
Adam Mazzola’s home was half a metre underwater in some parts during the peak of Monday’s flooding. Adam Mazzola
Flood-hit residents on Wairarapa’s south coast are demanding action after a creek burst its banks during torrential rain.
Low-lying homes in Whāngaimoana Beach were inundated when a severe storm swept across the lower North Island last month, closing roads, cutting power to thousands, and severing communities.
Locals say heartache could’ve been avoided if the stream bordering their properties had been dug out.
They’ve called on the council to open it to the sea so that it can drain during heavy rain, but the council says it’s not its responsibility.
Emergency operations says multiple warnings were issued about the flood risk and has signalled that flood mitigation will form part of its recovery work.
‘The water would’ve just buggered off’
Sections of the Whāngaimoana stream run through private property, including an identified and protected wetland, before hitting the beach, which is publicly owned.
When it breached its banks on Monday, 16 February, Adam Mazzola and his son were forced to evacuate as the water rose by up to half a metre inside their home.
They’ve been living elsewhere ever since, and Mazzola said they wouldn’t be returning to the 100-year-old bach – it’s too damaged.
A Givealittle page has been set up to help him “get back on his feet”.
Mazzola said it was important to know who was responsible for the stream and wanted to see a machine on standby to dig it out in the future.
“It [flood mitigation] could have saved our place and others if it [the stream] was cleared out and maintained,” he said.
Adam Mazzola looks at damage to his home. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Neighbours Jason Statham and Mellisa Tipene highlighted the same issue when RNZ visited.
Tipene said their property had flooded a “handful of times” in the past decade and believed opening up the stream at the beach would reduce the frequency.
“If they open up a mouth like Lake Ferry out the end there, so the water can release itself, you wouldn’t have it backing up and coming in here … and constantly flooding your yard that you work hard to… beautify.”
Whāngaimoana beach. RNZ
Statham said the rain warnings came well in advance of the downpour and thought there should have been some proactive flood mitigation.
“They should have been down there two days before it happened and opened up the mouth, and I don’t think that [the flooding] would have happened, the water would’ve just buggered off,” Statham said.
“But they didn’t do that. They warned us and all that, but they didn’t do f*** all.”
Property owners responsible for flood protection – council
While surveying the damage to her backyard, local Terry Shubkin told RNZ that more than one home in the lower section of the street flooded when the stream burst its banks.
Terry Shubkin. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Shubkin said flooding in the settlement was increasing in frequency, with the latest inundation on par with a “one-in-50-year flood” that hit in 2004.
She said she’d been pushing the Greater Wellington Regional Council [GWRC] for help on-and-off in the years since, but “the response I get is, ‘It’s not our problem.’”
Shubkin said the council put up a drone after “much nagging” last year and found willows and sediment were clogging the stream in places, but she said that was only part of the problem.
“The creek doesn’t actually flow out to the ocean; it closes off,” she said.
The regional council’s director of delivery, Jack Mace, said the council does carry out flood protection work in the area, but unfortunately, the creek falls outside its remit as set out in the Lower Wairarapa Valley Development Scheme.
The scheme from the 1960s is set for review in the next two to three years and covers building and maintaining stop banks, floodways, and drainage, as well as the opening of nearby Lake Ōnoke / Lake Ferry.
A council spokesperson said following the drone flight, recommendations were made to the landowner with the willows.
They said while Greater Wellington has powers to intervene in waterways – such as opening stream mouths – it won’t at Whāngaimoana because the creek doesn’t meet its criteria for management.
“Private landowners have a responsibility to protect their land from flooding unless there is a relevant river management plan/scheme in place.
“For this creek and community, the best opportunity to advocate for Whāngaimoana to be included in a river scheme is in the review of the Lower Wairarapa Valley Development Scheme.”
Mace said the regional council understood the impact of severe flooding on rural communities and believed it would take a long time for the region to fully recover.
“Our focus now is on stabilising river corridors within the scheme while we work to understand the extent of the damage and what may be required long term.”
Flood mitigation to be considered
Wairarapa Emergency Operations Centre said it was advised by the regional council that “Whāngaimoana was vulnerable to flooding if the stream breached its banks and sea swell backed up flood water” on Sunday, 15 February at 8.47pm.
A spokesperson for the office said staff followed up with residents as soon as it was safe to do so the next day, and noted that public advisories about the flood risk in low-lying areas – including an emergency mobile alert – were issued prior to and during the storm.
They said support agencies had boots on the ground in the immediate days after the flooding in Whāngaimoana and confirmed one family was still being “actively supported”.
“Regarding the clearing of streams and flood mitigation, we don’t have the necessary information to comment specifically about this situation at the moment, but this will form part of the recovery office’s work with impacted communities.”
In addition to immediate repairs, the recovery office – recently established by the South Wairarapa District Council – would focus on what communities needed to build resilience in the medium to long term.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
