Flood-affected areas such as Pakowhai will have community "navigators'' liaising between themselves and the Government about rebuilding. Photo / Warren Buckland
Flood-affected areas such as Pakowhai will have community "navigators'' liaising between themselves and the Government about rebuilding. Photo / Warren Buckland
It could be September before Hawke’s Bay’s cyclone-hit industries and communities find out where they stand.
Locality plans and business case studies have been submitted by local bodies and industry groups to the Hawke’s Bay Regional Recovery Agency. It will assess those, present them to the Government and then folkmight start to get answers to the many questions they’ve been asking.
“Navigators” will be appointed to localities – which in the Hastings district alone numbers 20 – to inform communities of developments and gather feedback on how Hawke’s Bay will be rebuilt and whether people can return to their homes.
“The whole flood protection and flood mitigation decision – and who pays – is going to be the hardest thing,’’ Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said.
“It will be a collective decision but, ultimately, someone has to pay if an area’s going to be rezoned and that can’t be the ratepayers.’’
Hazlehurst knows people wanted actions and answers weeks ago. She knows their fears and frustrations because she’s hearing them on an hourly basis.
“The hardest part is you can’t give everybody the information that they need at the moment.
“With information-gathering, you’ve got to do it efficiently, thoroughly, carefully, thoughtfully and it’s taking time. Winter’s coming and people want to know if they can build back.
“All you can do is be there, show your face and listen and then trust that before too long we’ll be able to get back to them.’’
The region’s councils have until September to submit their final recovery plans and, whatever people are eventually told, Hazlehurst is adamant that they will be able to trust it.
Not everyone will love it, because no two situations are absolutely alike, but the facts will be incontrovertible.
“At the moment we’ve got lots of communities saying we’re never leaving, we want to stay here. And in the same areas we’ve got lots of people saying we’re not returning,’’ said Hazlehurst.
“People need to have that information and that’s now being gathered and that has to be really carefully communicated – and it will be peer-reviewed and have the right people saying the right things – because you’re relying on technical expertise and people need to be able to understand that technical expertise.’’
Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst is working hard to ensure the public have clarity about what happened during Cyclone Gabrielle and how the future looks. Photo / File
There has been confusion and criticism about how the recovery process is being run and who’s leading it.
Is the Government holding things up or being economical with information? Or is it hamstrung by a lack of local leadership from Hawke’s Bay?
A spokesman for Cyclone Recovery Minister Grant Robertson told Hawke’s Bay Today that “this process is not about decisions being made here in Wellington”.
And yet the narrative persists that it is Robertson who’ll effectively pass judgment on the risk of rebuilding in certain parts of Hawke’s Bay.
“In terms of the area that the Government have said that we’re not leading, we said to them right at that early stage that we wanted a regional recovery from the community up and not a Government-led recovery from the top down,’’ Hazlehurst said.
Local governments had played their part and now it was up to “the Crown” to do its.
“We have to be optimistic about what they consider they can fund and what they can’t and how we’re going to do that.
“If you look at flood protection and engineered mitigation for some of our vulnerable communities, that’s going to be millions but who’s going to pay? That’s a big conversation we need to have with everyone around the table.
“We have to be realistic, but we’ve put our best foot forward.”
Hastings District Council figures suggest it could have a budget deficit of $17.9 million to June 30 this year, as a result of the rebuild and recovery work already undertaken. The council is hopeful that can be reduced by external funding.
Rebuilding is one thing, but there remain people in Hawke’s Bay battling to move on from the February flooding that claimed eight lives and endangered many more.
Hazlehurst said the terms of reference for the review into the cyclone response of the Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Group would be signed off in about a week, with the community then given an opportunity to contribute.
