Road to recovery from March storm starts for rural Wairoa

Any thought in a storm - neighbours communicate across the flooded waters of the storm which devastated rural Wairoa last month. Photo / Supplied

A Government contribution of $100,000 has been made to the Wairoa Mayoral Relief Fund as the district starts recovering from two storms and the threat of another – all in just two months.

The contribution was made after Minister for Civil Defence Kiritapu Allan visited the area last week with Napier MP Stuart Nash.

Ikaroa Rawhiti MP Meka Whaitiri also visited with a senior Wellington Ministry of Primary Industries staff member and Dannevirke-based East Coast Rural Support Trust chairman Tony Rhodes to check out the devastated Ruakituri Valley and attend a community meeting.

Wairoa District Council economic development office Courtney Hayward has been appointed recovery manager and mayor Craig Little says the focus is on the roads, with several government ministries involved, including hopes that Waka Kotahi NZTA will increase subsidy for repairs on the rural roads

A priority is the valley's Te Reinga Bridge, hit by the March 21-31 rains and last week secured to bulldozers as a precaution against the forces of new threat Cyclone Fili.

With access to farms and up to 400 residents restricted to a gravel road adding at least an hour to the trip to Wairoa, amid logging and other cartage traffic increased on the diversion from one or two trucks a day to as many as 20, a pedestrian crossing could be in place in six weeks, and "some of the best engineers in the country" are working at options to strengthen the bridge to a stage it could be used by some vehicle traffic.

Whaitiri says her visit highlighted both the resilience of a community and the work it could do, and where further support was needed.

She described the damage as something that needed to be seen to be believed, and to appreciate the plight of the farmers and their families.

Most farmers, almost three weeks after the heaviest of the rain and the greatest damage, still face difficulties getting access to their stock, getting machinery in and out to help with repairs and getting stock to the meatworks in Wairoa.

It was clear that with at least 24 families disrupted, the priority needed to be on the bridge or alternatives, Whaitiri said.

One farmer had offered access across his land, she said.

But there were also "a lot of balls in the air", with approaches since made to the Minister of Transport and Waka Kotahi NZTA and the Minister for Primary Industries, to make sure they were aware of the damage and problems in the area.

Meanwhile, there'll be a sign for some of life getting back to normal with the Mohaka sheepdog trials on Saturday and Sunday at Paroa Station.

Initially scheduled for March 27-28, they were postponed because of pandemic uncertainties.

But organiser, trialist and Cricklewood farmer Sheena Martin says if it hadn't been because of Covid it would have been the "weather bomb", that was well in charge by the time the date rolled around.

The popular Wairoa and Ruakituri clubs' trials, usually spanning three days and drawing farmers and dogs from throughout Hawke's Bay and Poverty Bay, were cancelled earlier in March.

Meanwhile Community Development Trust administrator Sue Wilson is pleased with support for a Connecting Rural Wairoa event on April 27 to support the community.

"Our farming community will face weeks of clean-up and then prepare for what could be another challenging winter," she said.

Businesses have stepped up to donate what they could, including money from those who have product that perhaps isn't suitable for the initiative.

Wilson and trust chairman Sefton Alexander say the initiative fits "perfectly" under the trust's "umbrella".