A remote hospital accommodating dementia patients in the tiny East Coast town of Te Puia Springs has been left without power, water and any physical way out since Monday.
Video / George Heard
A senior Waka Kotahi manager says the damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle across the North Island’s state highways is the worst he has seen in his 37 years working in the roading industry here and in the UK.
At least nine state highways in the central and northern North Island remain closed more than a week after Cyclone Gabrielle unleashed heavy rain and severe gales across the regions, causing widespread destructions, isolating communities and claiming at least 11 lives.
Scores of other highways and local roads in the North Island have access issues as workers clean away debris, slips and other hazards left behind by one of the worst weather events to hit New Zealand.
To understand the scale of the damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle and the January floods to our roading network, the Herald has used local and national data to map state highway closures and other disruptions.
The Herald has used data from Waka Kotahi to map the State Highways and data from Auckland Transport and Gisborne District Council to show some of the local road closures in these areas.
Locations in these regions are approximate due to the limited information provided by the councils.
The data used dates back to January 26 to include any roading closures and restrictions due to the Auckland Floods.
Waka Kotahi senior manager for maintenance operations Wayne Oldfield says it was expected most of the closed state highways will be accessible to some degree within the next three to five weeks with stop-go traffic control in place as workers continue repairing the damage.
“I was completely shocked,” he said, speaking of the moment he learned of the full scale of the damage from Cyclone Gabrielle on top of disruptions caused by the flooding in late January.
State Highway 5 (Eskdale to Taupō) after Cyclone Gabrielle hit New Zealand. Photo / Warren Buckland
“From a purely weather event-related [incident], this is the most significant one.”
The damage to the state highway network was the worst he had seen caused by a weather event in his 37 years (13 in New Zealand and 24 in the UK) in the industry.
The torrential rain caused significant overslips - land falling from above the highway onto the road - and underslips, the loss of the outside of the road.
On State Highway 25a, one of the worst-hit roads which is closed between Kopu and Hikuai near Coromandel, the highway has completely collapsed into the lower valley.
“We’ve seen the full gambit of damage to the state highway assets.
“[It is] pretty widespread and quite impactful as well, when you go from one extreme of a culvert blown and disappeared, versus 25A where we have lost the highway over a 100m section or so.”
The road closures have isolated communities, cutting off their physical access to the rest of the country.
Oldfield said one of the most damaged highways is SH35, between Tolaga Bay and Te Puia Springs in the East Coast. The road remains closed while Waka Kotahi says other sections of the highway that wraps around the cape from Gisborne to Ōpōtiki will be littered with debris, fallen trees and slips.
“Our real focus in the early days of the response is reconnecting communities,” Oldfield said.
“[It will be] highly frustrating for those people, of course, and that’s kind of our driver right now, to keep working hard on those routes to open up those communities [...] to get people moving, goods in. That’s our focus right now.”
Cyclone Gabrielle destroyed the coastline of Gisborne taking out bridges and roads, including closing SH35 through Tokomaru Bay. Photo / George Heard
Communities in Te Puia Springs were left isolated in the days after Cyclone Gabrielle hit.
Last week, staff at a hospital accommodating dementia patients in the East Coast town told the Herald they had watched emergency helicopters fly over them in frustration and despair as their food supplies ran low.
“I think the first couple days we were all right,” mental health clinician at Ngāti Porou Hauora, Te Ara Puketapu, said at the time.
“We saw the helicopters coming through and we were quite hopeful, but they flew over us, and we had no power, water service, internet, and lots of us have kids and we’re starting to run out of food.”
Inside, patients listened to jazz music in their rooms to pass the time as they waited for help.
Patients have listened to music in their rooms to pass the time while waiting for help. Photo / George Heard
A bridge over the Hikuwai River between Tolaga Bay and Tokomaru Bay was taken out during Cyclone Gabrielle.
Further south, crews have their eyes on a new slip on SH2 between Gisborne and Ōpōtiki, and are limiting access on the route to between 7am and 7pm with various speed restrictions in place.
Another highway section among the worst damaged and closed is SH2 between Napier and Wairoa, where an experienced truck driver was forced to abandon his vehicle as a slip blocked the road ahead and floodwaters rose to his door around 7pm on February 14.
A screenshot of the Hawke's Bay Emergency Management's status map for local road closures and weather warnings, taken at 5pm on February 23.
“There was no road, basically,” John Milne told Stuff.
“[I was] climbing through trees, over slips, through water. I got tipped up and dragged across the road for about 20ft before I could get my feet back up.”
Milne eventually came across two Unison workers and the trio hunkered down until the morning before going up a hill where they were rescued by locals.
John Milne's truck was photographed by the NZ Defence Force on February 16. Photo / NZDF
The long stretch of SH5 between Eskdale and Taupō is also closed due to flooding with no detour in place.
“We are working really hard in there and we have made fantastic progress. It has sustained reasonable damage as well,” Waka Kotahi’s Wayne Oldfield said.
Contractors have visited all of the closed state highways with four-wheel drive vehicles or helicopters, except for the Napier-Wairoa highway.
“State Highway 2 between Napier and Wairoa - that’s the one we are starting to make our way into now with our machinery and our contractors. We understand there is widespread damage in that region.”
