“The slash issue needs to be addressed — it’s just not acceptable that slash can damage farmland in the way it has,” Mr Andrew said.
“Farmers can deal with silt from flooding, but the forest debris has caused massive damage to fences that will take a huge amount of work to rectify.”
Mr Andrew said the impact of the rain and the flooding that resulted was a “huge shame” for the affected farmers, “especially with winter upon us”.
There had also been stock losses.
“From reports in so far they vary from small losses, to one station that has lost an estimated 200-300 lambs.”
Properties at Whangara and Tokomaru Bay were also hard hit. “Again, fencing loss is the major issue for them.”
One property owner in the Whangara area said yesterday they had lost about seven kilometres of boundary fence along the banks of the Pakarae River.
Other properties in their area, theirs included, had lost much of their flat grazing land to flooding, the resulting silt and the forest debris.
“It’s carnage around here along the waterways, and it’s not just forest slash but big whole logs that have come down across our paddocks.
“Where do we start to clean up?”
That was the question she said they were asking themselves.
Farms, roads massively hitNorm Thomas from Mahana Station at Whangara said any flat paddocks he has on his property have lost their riverside fences.
“For us it’s not as bad as Cyclone Bola in terms of the amount of debris left behind, but in terms of the volume and height of the floodwaters it was worse. Fortunately, in a way, it came through in a period of seven to eight hours.”
The floodwaters flowed very quickly.
“We have lost all of our flatland grazing as a result and I will be writing off those paddocks for grazing over winter.” Mr Thomas said.
“I am in the process of trying to find some alternative grazing for 300 young bulls and 400 replacement lambs, and I appreciate very much the offers I have had already,” Mr Thomas said.
His stock losses were quite low.
“About 15 lambs I think at this stage.”
Mr Thomas said farms along the Waiomoko River had also been badly affected by the weather event.
“They saw extreme river levels that cleaned out floodgates and boundary fences.”
The newly-formed Rural Co-ordination Group held a telephone conference yesterday to discuss the situation, and have begun to formulate an action plan to assist all affected rural residents.
A helicopter reconnaisance was carried out this morning.
“The information gathered will be used to build up a broad picture, then we will get more detail from individual farmers and make a case to the Ministry for Primary Industries for assistance,” said recovery co-ordinator John Clarke.
Eastland Network has reconnected all properties that lost electricity supply as a result of the storm.“There were 29 connections in the Arakihi Road, Kiore Road and West Ho areas inland from Tolaga Bay, and our staff had them back on the supply by midday yesterday,” said network general manager Brent Stewart.
“It was very good work by our crews. We used a chopper to get some access, but mainly it involved a bit of walking by the crews.”
Gisborne District Council’s website shows most of the roads closed yesterday as still closed today.“The road damage was more severe than we first thought,” emergency manager Louise Bennett said this morning.
Contractors continue to work their way along affected roads. No update had been provided by the time The Herald went to print today.
A heavy rain watch is in place for Gisborne, with 50mm expected in the six hours from 9pm today to 3am tomorrow in the area south of Gisborne to Te Puia Springs, especially the eastern hills.There is also a heavy snow watch in place for the Gisborne district, with snow lowering to 500 metres, and snow accumulations might approach warning amounts above this level, for example 10cm in six hours.
