Weather: Cyclone Hale - Tolaga Bay property inundated by forestry debris, silt

An elderly couple can’t reach their rural East Coast property which now lies in ruins after their front paddock was inundated by storm debris and silt.

Linda Gough and her husband live next to Mangatokerau Bridge in Tolaga Bay.

On Tuesday night, when ex-tropical Cyclone Hale was at its peak, the river level rose above 10m, bursting its bank and spilling on to their property.

The Mangatokerau Bridge in Tolaga Bay is buried by forest debris. Photo / Miss-Kate Rochelle

Gough told the Herald this morning she was stuck in her house and had received no offers of help from either the forestry workers or the local council.

”We have to get to doctors today but the forestry hasn’t even come and cleared our drive, so we’re stuck here.

”I can’t get to my birds or pets to get food and water to them.”

The council had also not contacted her with offers of help, Gough said.

”I blame the council as much as the forestry; they are not making them meet their resource consents.”

Gough said she saw her whole paddock get destroyed in less than an hour as rivers of debris came at her house with full force.

“We don’t have anything left, it has taken everything,” she had told the Herald yesterday afternoon.

“At 9.30pm I was outside, the river looked fine, the water was passing through, but within minutes we saw big logs heading towards the bridge.

“We knew we were in trouble. The huge logs collected on the sides and within the hour our whole property was covered by it.

“The water saturated our land; from the bottom of our house’s stairs all the way up to the edge where the bridge is, it’s silt.

“We can’t get to and from our house, we have to go over the hill. All the food for the animals is gone.

“It’s horrible.”

Linda Gough's paddock is covered in silt stretching all the way to the stairs of her Tolaga Bay home. Photo / Miss-Kate Rochelle

Gough said forestry workers had not done enough to prevent yet another massive pile-up of slash and forestry debris.

“We have been here for many years. Last time this happened as well and now it’s just worse.”

She and her husband were older and had health complications, she said.

“We can’t clean all of it by ourselves and so far nobody has come to help or even check on us.”

https://t.co/ua3Njk5vuk

— WeatherWatch.co.nz (@WeatherWatchNZ) January 11, 2023

Authorities in Tairāwhiti have declared a state of emergency after the district was swamped by torrential rain from the ex-tropical Cyclone Hale, which tracked south over the country yesterday bringing fresh flooding and slips to the lower North Island, while continuing to pummel the already drenched east coast.

‘Water, water everywhere’

Gisborne deputy mayor Josh Wharehinga told Newstalk ZB this morning the priority for them was to get all East Coast communities reconnected again following the destruction.

”The weather has eased back. Only a little bit of sprinkle and light rain. But the catchment is soaked and it’s just water, water everywhere.

“The main job is getting our communities reconnected.”

Communities on the East Coast, including those in Whareponga and Waipiro Bay, were still cut off, Wharehinga said.

“Just under 300 houses are with no power. Right at the start there were 2000 houses; it has come down. The immediate concern is to get people in small pockets of the coast reconnected.”

State Highway 35 was “absolutely smashed”, Wharehinga said.

“The community is resilient. It’s bittersweet, we have been through it before but it is never easy. It is quite hard but we soldier on. We have good Civil Defence teams up and down the coast. People with good hearts doing the hard mahi.”

There had been two big landslides in the middle of the city and one right below someone’s house, he said.

“Surface flooding is similar everywhere across the coast. The wastewater system is full.

“We are asking people to be mindful of their water use.”

The Government was committed to supporting the region, Wharehinga said.

“Minister Kiri Allan did a fly around East Coast, she was with us and we had our chief scientist taking photos and a person from the forestry compliance monitoring the area.

“The central government is supportive of us every single time. We are really focused on reconnecting the communities and that’s definitely a conversation we will have with the central government but we still need to do a full assessment of what the damage is.”

The Hikuwai River had risen to 13.5 metres - higher than when Cyclone Bola hit.

“We really need to do an assessment. The central government has made the commitment to talk about it with us.”

Large slips, roads closed

The devastating storm triggered large slips, forcing the closure of several major roads, caused severe flooding and triggered damaging sea swells that threatened homes and buildings on the Coromandel.

Further south some highways remain closed, including State Highway 56 at Opiki in the Manawatū-Whanganui region.

SH56 OPIKI, MANAWATŪ-WHANGANUI - FLOODING - 6:35AM THU 12 JAN
The road between Tanas Rd and Alve Rd is now CLOSED due to flooding. Please avoid the area or delay your journey if possible. ^EH pic.twitter.com/Q6EjuHzGmV

— Waka Kotahi NZTA Central North Island (@WakaKotahiCNI) January 11, 2023

GISBORNE & HAWKE'S BAY – SEVERE WEATHER – UPDATE 6:20AM THU 12 JAN
SH35 Hick Bay to Te Araroa is now OPEN. SH35 Tolaga Bay to Ruatoria and SH2 Whirinaki to Wairoa remain CLOSED. ^EH https://t.co/swA22dSJ5A pic.twitter.com/04FcV81ZZ3

— Waka Kotahi NZTA Central North Island (@WakaKotahiCNI) January 11, 2023

Blenheim, Picton inundated

As the weather event moved towards the South Island, SH1 between Blenheim and Picton was inundated by flooding yesterday, reducing the road to one lane and delaying ferry crossings as motorists got stuck in long queues into the port town.

Traffic was delayed at Koromiko, the southern entrance to Picton, where 99mm of rain fell in six hours, flooding the highway, Waka Kotahi said.

Former Christchurch City councillor Deon Swiggs was travelling south from Picton when he encountered the “horrific” weather.

“Some severe flooding over the roads just south of Picton,” said Swiggs.

“And the Kaikoura coast isn’t much better. Blenheim was weirdly fine and dry.”

As of 4.30pm, SH1 between Mangaweka and Hunterville was also closed because of flooding but later reopened.

Gisborne locals self-evacuated on Tuesday as floodwaters rose amid fears of rivers breaching their banks.

In the storm’s aftermath, Gisborne’s Gladstone Rd Bridge would be shut from 7pm tonight until 6am Friday and again overnight on Friday.

“The closure is required to clear debris beneath the bridge following ex-tropical Cyclone Hale.”

SH35 remains closed between Tolaga Bay and Ruatoria, however, it is now open between Te Araroa and Hicks Bay.

Tairāwhiti remains under a local state of emergency. Excessive levels of rain - more than 200mm in some areas in just 24 hours - caused the Hikuwai River to climb to 13.5m, higher than Cyclone Bola levels.

There was a major risk of thousands of hectares of farmland and property being damaged as the river threatened to reach a record-breaking level that would trigger mandatory evacuations.

It has since dropped to 6.5m as the rain subsided, but authorities are still urging caution among residents and warning people to take extreme care on the region’s roads.

As of midday Wednesday, 51 local roads were closed, and more are being discovered by personnel.

The Coromandel also took a significant beating from the rain, with several roads being closed because of slips and surface flooding.

A main road out of the district remained blocked overnight on Tuesday by a slip but the worst of the weather appears to have passed with rain and wind easing on the eastern side of the peninsula.

Thames Coromandel District Council described the storm as a “one-in-20-year event”, with rainfall figures across the region expected to total 400mm this week.

A desperate bid to save a Whitianga building from being washed into the sea appears to have worked, with a makeshift sea wall holding fast after yesterday morning’s high tide.

The seaside clubhouse for the Mercury Bay Boating Club managed to escape further damage after losing large chunks of land beneath its front veranda.

Club commodore Jonathan Kline said yesterday morning’s effort by scores of club members and local residents was phenomenal.

“I woke up this morning in a very bad state and then we made a few decisions to proceed with what we were told not to do yesterday and I feel great.”

Other major roads closed by the fierce storm included SH1 in Northland across the Brynderwyns.

This was closed for a period on Tuesday because of slips but had since reopened.

However, from today, Waka Kotahi said because of slips, the area will be reduced to a single lane under stop/go traffic while they clear the sodden earth and cut trees.

MetService said the ex-cyclone was yesterday due to slowly begin making its way from New Zealand.

Although there is still rain expected across much of the Lower North Island and the east coast of the South Island as the tail end of the storm whips through, MetService forecasts the wet weather will not be as heavy or persistent as in previous days.

By tonight, the storm will have completely left NZ, allowing affected areas time to begin the much-needed clean-up after the destruction.

However, MetService is monitoring the possibility of another cyclone hitting NZ next week.

Weather forecasting models are predicting a storm to form in the tropics over the weekend and possibly move towards the North Island further east - or miss land altogether.