Orchard workers clearing silt and mud from base of trees in Brookfields. Photo / Ian Cooper
Orchard workers clearing silt and mud from base of trees in Brookfields. Photo / Ian Cooper
As Hawke’s Bay undertakes the painstaking process of cleaning up from Cyclone Gabrielle, those digging out the mud and silt wonder aloud why the damage was so severe.
Why were some areas badly affected and others left largely unscathed?
A conspiracy theory that continues to float like an apple bin in a torrent is that Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) breached stopbanks on purpose.
That, in an effort to disperse rapidly rising floodwater, holes were blown in stopbanks to release the torrent.
It’s a topic HBRC has addressed before - and it’s doing it again now - to unequivocally quell the spread of rumour and innuendo.
“We can confirm that we did not intentionally breach stopbanks to let floodwaters through to an overflow area,” HBRC asset management group manager Chris Dolley said.
Another popular question posed in Pākōwhai in particular relates to stopbanks along the Tutāekurī River.
HBRC raised the level of those stopbanks along the Taradale side, which Dolley has previously credited with preventing “catastrophic” flooding in Napier.
The river path between Redclyffe Bridge and Guppy Rd was closed for roughly six months towards the end of 2021 and start of 2022 for that work.
Flood victims are curious, though, about why the stopbank wasn’t raised on the other side of the river and whether that contributed to the damage caused in areas such as Pākōwhai and Waiohiki.
Links Road was not in good shape after the Tutāekurī River burst its banks. Photo / Paul Taylor
Even in the weeks that have followed Cyclone Gabrielle, properties along Links Rd and Pākōwhai Rd have taken on sizeable amounts of surface water following thunderstorms.
“We had begun the process to increase the Heretaunga Flood Control Scheme to a one-in-500-year level of service,” Dolley said.
“We used a multi-criteria methodology to prioritise the upgrade location based on the impact of a breach on residential population, lifeline utilities and more.
“Taradale was deemed the highest priority for an upgrade, followed by Moteo and Ngatarawa.
“During the unprecedented rain events, tens of kilometres of the stopbank network were overtopped, [as] shown by the 26 kilometres of stopbank which have suffered erosion damage.”
Three of the 30 stopbanks that breached during Cyclone Gabrielle have now been temporarily repaired. Eleven others are in the process of being repaired, with permanent fixes on all 30 some months away.
Restoring pump stations has been another priority, while surface water is still being removed at Awatoto, Pākōwhai and Waiohiki.
Interestingly, HBRC said - in a statement released to media on Thursday afternoon - they have also done repairs on instruments used for rainfall and river monitoring. A secondary system has also been installed at the Waipunga bridge in Esk Valley.
