150,000 tonnes of fallen trees, $1m council costs: Clutha cleanup continues

Gale force winds toppled trees and brought down power lines

Branches were hurled like javelins into paddocks, and while no people or animals were injured, the pair have vowed not to plant eucalyptus trees on the property again.

In the months since, the McCammons have been juggling seasonal farm work with long days on the chainsaw and hammering in new fence posts.

“It was just so much destruction in such a short amount of time,” Holly McCammon said.

“The scale of it – it was a shock looking around… knowing how much it would take to clean up,” Todd McCammon said.

He said the pair had spent about $25,000 repairing the farm to date – “and that’s probably halfway.”

Like many farmers, the McCammons’ insurance did not cover fallen trees or damaged fencing.

The pair were still waiting for heavy machinery to deal with the largest logs.

“There’s so many contractors around to do it, so you just got to wait until you can get one,” he said.

In Balclutha, logging contractor Mike Hurring said the backlog of storm-damaged properties was growing daily, and could take about two years to get through.

Hurring, of Mike Hurring Logging & Contracting, said his crews had completed work at 25 properties, had six others under way and 87 still to go.

“We’ve got 150,000 tonnes of logs we’re cleaning up at this stage… and that’s just private properties, not commercial,” he said.

He was concerned about people taking matters into their own hands while they waited – using chainsaws in situations that require heavy machinery and professional crews to be done safely.

“There’s been some horror stories. I’ve heard of farmers being flung around paddocks from logs they’ve cut off, chainsaws getting ripped out of people’s hands and thrown over their heads. I haven’t heard of any serious injuries but there’s been a lot of close calls,” he said.

His advice: “If you think that something looks dangerous, then it is dangerous.”

Hurring said he was trying to hire another 10 to 15 staff and was prioritising farms where timber could still be salvaged.

“We’ve got a bit of a window of opportunity with wood that has still got the root plates on it, has got a bit of a life left in it. The stuff that’s broken off though is dying pretty quickly.”

Some farmers, however, have already cut their losses.

Clutha district councillor Simon McAtamney lives on a 540-hectare sheep farm near Clydevale with his wife Camille, where they estimate thousands of trees have fallen in hard-to-reach areas of their forestry blocks.

“It’s been hard work trying to get forestry crews in. They’ve been flat out, and a lot of what’s broken in there now – it’s three months on, it won’t be suitable for good timber. A lot will just get written off now,” he said.

“We’ve still got quite a bit of standing. It’s just going to be very expensive to log it in the future because of that broken stuff.”

The couple managed to secure a contractor with a digger to clear their shelter belts but were still waiting for fencing repairs.

Compared to three months earlier, the farm now looked “semi-tidy”, McAtamney said.

“We’ve got about 60 big piles of wood slash and firewood. But if you get too close then you see all the holes in the fences and the missing fences… I think it’ll take a couple of years to get everything fully repaired. We’ve just got to stagger it out and prioritise,” he said.

The storm had been a wake-up call, McAtamney said.

“It has been very hard for a lot of people. In this part of the world, we always thought we’d lived in a pretty benign sort of climate when it comes to extreme events – but we’ve been proven wrong. In a way, it was our turn, just like it is for others at the moment,” he said.

Clutha District Council bill nears $1m

Clutha District Council response manager Sharon Jenkinson said the cost of repairing damaged community amenities had climbed to $991,000.

She said it could take months to clear some parks, and the council remained focused on supporting residents through the storm’s aftermath.

“We’re looking at ways to help our district and get labour units here to help, especially in the rural community with cleanup, fencing, safety, and issues with property damage,” she said.

The storm, which cut power for weeks in some areas, had also prompted a rethink on emergency preparedness, Jenkinson said.

“The devastation that was caused by the wind event, we’ve never seen anything like it here before. It, was on a scale we’ve never experienced. So we’ll certainly be taking extra precautions and be watching the orange wind warnings when they’re issued,” she said.

The council was also looking to boost its supply of generators and battery-operated communications technology, she said.

“We know that this event’s influenced many people to consider what they need to do to be prepared for any future events. And I know a lot of the other agencies in the rural sector especially are encouraging their farmers to be prepared.”

To date, 21 people affected by the storm have applied for financial support through Clutha District Council’s mayoral relief fund, Jenkinson said.

The fund was still open, and still taking donations, she said.

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