Cyclone Gabrielle flood maps: Hawke’s Bay’s latest zoning announcement was always going to be a tough day

EDITORIAL

Over a map of Rissington now lies a single broken heart.

The community that brought homes, farms, a famous lodge and the joys of life to one of Hawke’s Bay’s most beautiful river valleys now finds some of its land rezoned in the wake of the awfulness of Cyclone Gabrielle.

Properties in Rissington, on the Mangaone River, have been provisionally rezoned because of flooding during Cyclone Gabrielle.

Eighteen communities in the region have as of Thursday been given the blueprints for what their futures could look like.

The numbers are hard to fathom — 236 homes in Hawke’s Bay sit in category 3, a zone likely to be classified as unable to be rebuilt.

There are another 2500 homes that will now sit in limbo, possibly able to be rebuilt, but only if flood protections can be strengthened, or buildings raised, or both. It could be years before there’s 100 per cent certainty for these people.

In Rissington, the land at the bottom of the stunning cliffs that surround it is now divided up. Some of it has been placed into level 2, some of it in category 3, and some of it isn’t reclassified at all.

Bagpiper Cory McGowan alongside an Anzac tree sculpture in the community of Rissington. Photo / Paul Taylor

The symbolism of turning the Rissington flood zone into what looks like a heart isn’t intentional by the map-makers. But it’s a powerful illustration of what the community has been through these past three and a half months.

There will be homeowners in the region who will breathe a sigh of relief now, knowing they are likely to have their homes bought out by the Government — a so-far-promised $1 billion investment.

Then there will be stoicism, and determination to rebuild, because that is what Kiwis are like.

Dan Gale told us he feels like the category 3 classification is the equivalent of a confiscation of the Esk Valley by the Government. Fair enough.

No matter what the outcome for flooded homeowners, Thursday was not a good day.

Behind every one of those roughly 3000 homeowners who had to open their email to discover their future, is a story of pain and hardship endured.

Three and a half months after Cyclone Gabrielle hit Hawke's Bay, a house in Pakowhai sits with a bin on its roof, onions and pumpkins rotting around it. Photo / Warren Buckland

We must never forget how the damage and destruction this cyclone wrought made us feel in those initial stages — the sheer horridness of what rain on such a scale could do.

As a local historian told me last week, Hawke’s Bay’s big floods in written history were always met with shock.

But then, if there are a few good years of climate afterwards, people simply return and build again.

They forget the awfulness of water. And then in time there’s another flood, perhaps even bigger than the last.

Rinse, repeat.

In that context, it’s hard to argue that land reclassification is the wrong thing to be doing.

But the hardest part of it is that no matter what happens — even if the process is done carefully, quickly, and with empathy — it will break hearts all over again.

It’s part of the reason charities such as the Red Cross and Lotto haven’t yet delivered all the funds they raised. The long run to a rebuilt Hawke’s Bay has begun, and we’ll need all the support we can get.

Look after each other. We’ll get through it together.

– Chris Hyde is the editor of Hawke’s Bay Today