More details of the human and financial costs of the pair of devastating storms that hammered parts of the North Island's eastern coast have emerged – including millions of dollars of uninsured farm damage, including one crop grower's near $1 million uncovered loss.
And a grim picture has also been painted of how tough the recovery for some farmers and horticulture operations will be as they try to rebuild their operations on still-sodden land, and in the face of multimillion-dollar revenue losses.
The East Coast, Poverty Bay and parts of Hawke's Bay suffered widespread damage – both to private land and roading networks – during two storms which lashed the regions between late March and mid-April.
A wide-ranging assessment by Federated Farmers – carried out for the Wairoa and Gisborne district councils – has revealed further details of just how widespread the damage in the two regions was; and in many cases continues to be.
That includes just 11.9 per cent of damage suffered by the surveyed land owners expected to be covered by insurance.
The study included a survey of 251 rural properties that suffered an estimated $11m worth of damage.
Just under half believed they would have no insurance to cover the nature of their losses. And just 11.9 per cent said their losses would be fully covered.
"At the same time 20 per cent of the affected properties were already expressing concerns for their long-term income," the report said.
"This number may grow as the impacts of the event settle in.
"We know that these properties alone were anticipating a $5m reduction in revenue from the impact of the event. With the need to fund uninsured losses on the back of reduced income, there will be challenging times ahead for the local community."
Farm paddocks on the East Coast resemble lakes on the first day of flooding that hit the region in March. Photo / Neil Reid
The disparity between available insurance cover and the actual damage was highlighted in the study, which shows the average cover per property was just $9555. That figure represents just 11.9 per cent of damage suffered.
Stock and crop damage figured highly in the study.
One farmer said they lost 300 lambs "down the river", which had a combined value of $48,000.
A crop grower revealed they had lost up to $1m that wouldn't be covered by insurance, saying: "Half million down in fruit income, $100,000 in grape income, and too early to call in apply income but potentially $300,000. Looked like was going to be a bumper crop. Not covered by insurance."
The highest estimated income loss due to the storms from the sector in the Wairoa district was $1.5m. In the wider Gisborne region, it was $900,000.
One forestry operation lost about $800,000 due to road closures that meant logs couldn't be trucked out. There were also clean-up costs and losses due to pre-booked crew and machinery hire.
The widespread nature of the damage meant that a staggering 90 per cent of those in the agriculture and horticulture industries surveyed still could not access all areas of their properties.
More than half of the properties surveyed – which stretched from the northern Hawke's Bay up to the East Coast - lost power or internet during the storms. Of those, 43 per cent said they lost both power and electricity at some stage.
Fencing was one part of the farming infrastructure hard hit by the floods which followed the two deluges which came so soon in succession.
Roads throughout the East Coast, Gisborne and Hawke's Bay were closed by slips, including this one on SH35 near Tolaga Bay. Photo / Neil Reid
More than three-quarters of properties suffered fencing damage, with the average being 1.7km destroyed per farm.
The fence damage had seen 27 per cent of properties not being fully stock-proofed.
Damage to roads in the areas meant 12 per cent of those surveyed lost access to their agriculture or horticulture operations.
That includes one farmer who couldn't get to their farm for three weeks and eventually cleared the road they needed to travel on of debris by themselves.
Some others who could get onto their farms have not been able to use vehicles to get to vast areas of their land due to farm track wash-outs and erosion.
That includes one farmer who can only travel to and around a 300ha part of his property by horse.
Responses from farmers in the report on the state of damage included: "This is a three-four year job to get everything sorted", "we spent $4k on chopper just getting supplies in to survive", "we still need a 4wd for access", "sometimes we have to leave the car over 5km from the house and take the quad", "we lost connectivity and power for 10 days", and "I had to sell stock as haven't had fences to hold them".
The Federated Farmers assessment revealed some northern parts of Hawke's Bay received triple the amount of normal rainfall for that time of the year in the first storm.
Two weeks later a further "weather bomb" created further widespread damage around Wairoa, Gisborne and the East Coast.
Roads were again washed out, stop banks breached leading to farm flooding, as well as widespread erosion.
"Rural areas saw additional significant damage to pasture and fences with slips, blocked and damaged culverts, washouts and rockfalls being some of the more common issues.
"Recovery will be hampered by the wet ground conditions, high water table and unstable soils and hillsides."
Meanwhile, a separate document prepared after a recent storm-damage assessment meeting by Gisborne District Council's Civil Defence Emergency Management Group said the initial nine-day severe weather event had exceeded rain "in one-in-100-year levels" across the entire Tairāwhiti region.
"Many houses and much rural land were damaged, and a great number of roads were either closed or had limited access, because of slips, washouts and rock falls," the document said.
"Bridge infrastructure failures, particularly on State Highway 35, isolated a number of communities, particularly on the coast."
East Coast locals remain frustrated at the state of their local roads, including SH35, with some repairs from floods as far back as 2021 yet to be started. Photo / Neil Reid
Twelve days after the rain stopped, the region was then hammered by the remnants of Cyclone Fili which caused further slips, flooding, power outages and road closures.
Across both weather events, payments totalling $429,779 have been provided for Gisborne and East Coast residents needing emergency accommodation.
The GDC's Civil Defence Emergency Management Group said recent calm weather "had been a welcome relief given the fragile state of the land and infrastructure as well as the toll taken on the communities that have been affected by the events of the past two months.
It said the earlier June 2021 weather event which caused huge damage – especially around Tolaga Bay and Tokomaru Bay was "between a 1-in-35 and a 1-in-100-year event".
The assessment said "many whānau" continued to live with family members after the duo of storms.
The large amount of rainfall in such a short time was so great that they would have "overwhelmed any culvert".
Sheep seek higher ground as flooding on a neighbouring East Coast paddock nears them. Photo / Neil Reid
More than a year on, some of the debris – including from forestry sites – was yet to be cleaned up and was still at "vulnerable sites, which has not made its way out to sea".
Work was also ongoing to ensure "roads are safe" after damage suffered, with some funding from Waka Kotahi still yet to be approved.
The Herald has previously revealed roading damage across the East Coast, Gisborne and the wider Hawke's Bay would cost up to $50m.
The Herald also revealed that as the clean-up for the March-April storm continued, there was frustration on the East Coast that some repairs from flooding events back in 2021 still hadn't begun.
