A small group of Awatoto residents are asking for help to remove the silt and protect their homes if they have to leave. Reporter / Mitchell Hageman. Video / Warren Buckland.
Morgan Peters and her friends are walking through the remains of their feared-contaminated community in full personal protective gear, devastation littered around them.
This isn’t a scene out of Chernobyl.
It’s Awatoto, just five minutes south of Napier - without power and water and lined with potentially toxic sludge.
This is a flood-stricken part of Hawke’s Bay that residents say has largely been “forgotten about”.
When the Tūtaekurī River breached in the early hours of February 14, waters poured through. There was no warning it was coming.
The community is adjacent to one of Napier’s biggest industrial centres.
Damage at nearby plants has posed health concerns in the wake of the flood. In a statement, the council said the industrial area contains “high levels of contamination in silt and remaining flood waters.”
Those in residential areas nearby were evacuated last week amid health fears.
While they’ve been allowed to return since, the evacuation brought a new risk to the community: a fear of looting.
Peters, of Phillips St, says one stricken home has been stripped of its doorknobs and light fittings, with footprints in the cracked silt potentially showing the looters’ path.
Footprints of a suspected looter near an abandoned house at the end of Phillips Street, Awatoto. Photo / Warren Buckland
Napier City Council says the risk of pollution contaminating residential areas of Awatoto is now “low”, and email and paper notices have been provided to the community’s inhabitants.
But residents say they need more information about what exactly they’re dealing with.
“All the neighbours have been calling and emailing the council to try to get more information,” Peters said.
“We can’t take toxic waste to the dump, and someone has to come and collect it. When are they going to?”
Peters also said members of the community had been verbally abused by people who were canvassing flood-damaged homes and taking contaminated items from rubbish piles.
“You can see the footprints through the sludge where they made their way around to the window,” she said, pointing to an uninhabited property that was burgled for its light fittings and doorknobs.
Morgan Peters (left) and a friend sift through flood-damaged items on Phillips Street, Awatoto. Photo / Warren Buckland
Jack Thomson’s house was completely flooded, and he said communication, in general, had been “pretty vague, to be honest”.
He said some people didn’t even realise the extent of the flooding in the area and the fact there was contamination.
“People are like, ‘What? We didn’t know you’d even been hit’.”
Janet Raitt lives with her husband Bruce at the top of Phillips St. She agreed that communication was a concern and said more should be done to prevent unauthorised access and looting.
“We’re not being kept in touch,” she said.
She was also concerned that those taking damaged items could be exposed to serious health risks.
“There’s no hazard signs at the other end of street, and people are coming and taking all the flood-damaged goods, which could well be toxic.”
She also said that while the council had now stationed guards by the railway tracks to prevent unauthorised access, they should have some further down Phillips St.
Peters said residents had reported theft and looting to the police, who had provided the community with physical forms to fill out in the absence of power.
Police said in a statement that they have heard residents’ concerns around crime and are actively working hard to put reassurance measures in place.
They said a mobile Police base was present in Awatoto on Monday and returned on Tuesday.
“We sympathise with affected those who cannot access their properties, however we advise them to adhere to the requirements put in place. The decisions have been made by the appropriate authority given the very real safety risks.”
The statement said if residents have concerns about unlawful activity, they should dial 111 if it is happening now, or make a report via 105 if it is after the fact.
A Napier City Council spokesperson said in a statement the council was working closely with Civil Defence to co-ordinate response efforts in Awatoto.
“Civil Defence staff and Napier City Council staff have been to the properties in Awatoto a number of times over the last few days.
“CDEM [Civil Defence Emergency Management] have also made welfare checks by phone to those who are not at their houses. CDEM has also emailed information about accommodation, financial and health and safety help to residents, as well as giving them information in hard-copy [form] to those who were on-site.”
The statement also said that the risk of pollution in residential area of Awatoto was now “low”.
“There are some issues with silt in the nearby industrial area. There are multiple tests in multiple sites taking place. It’s a very thorough process, which is ongoing.
“Early on, CDEM gave residents in the area full PPE [personal protective equipment] gear for them to wear if they were working outside their houses on any clean-up. This was a precautionary measure as we were waiting on preliminary test results.”
Collection of flood-damaged rubbish would start in Meeanee today, and council contractors would “move into further areas over the next few days”, the spokesperson said.
