Cyclone Gabrielle - Recovery is by building from the ground up

Sally Dryland emphasised the importance of staying in contact with local communities. Photo / Leanne Warr

“The best way we will build back is from the ground up, one local community at a time,” says Tararua District Federated Farmers president Sally Dryland.

Much of coastal Tararua District was cut off following the cyclone two weeks ago and while there have been outreach missions involving staff at Tararua District Council, local iwi and other organisations going out to help those communities, recovery was going to take a long time.

Devastation on Waihoki Valley Road in Pongaroa. Many other communities experienced similar devastation. Photo / Tararua District Council

Tararua Rural Support Trust along with other rural co-ordination groups across the regions were now working to get a full picture of the support and costs involved to get everyone back functioning on farm, Dryland said.

She emphasised the importance of staying in contact with local communities during the recovery.

“Isolation remains a factor for some.”

Dryland said there had been plenty of offers of feed and equipment and while she was grateful for those offers, she asked people to use the Feed Co-ordination Service to make it easier to get feed and silage out to the farmers that needed it.

She said people could log feed they had to donate or sell, or log what they needed.

Help had also been offered by local trucking firms to transport goods from farm to farm.

Local trucking companies have offered help to transport goods farm to farm.

Those who had trouble logging the information could contact her.

Meanwhile, Federated Farmers was calling for Minister for the Environment David Parker to enact the provisions of the Kaikoura earthquake response.

“This would allow some of the silly stuff like culverts being reinstated to be overruled for all regions affected,” Dryland said.

The national body wanted the minister to amend the Resource Management Act which would enable Cyclone Gabrielle affected farmers and growers to undertake remedial work without breaching district or regional regulatory requirements.

Dryland said up to last year, farmers could put in culverts for stock crossings and safe people access without needing to ask anyone.

She said Horizons Regional Council recognised that the requirement in regulations for a consent was problematic.

“Horizons advice is to get on and do what needs to be done.”

She advised farmers to take photos of the damage and any changes they made.

The Ministry for Primary Industries now has grants available to help with recovery.

Pastoral and arable farmers/growers can apply for grants of up to $10,000 to help, such as repairs to water infrastructure, and growers can apply for grants for $2000 per hectare up to a maximum of $40,000 to remove silt from trees and vines, support clean up and other time-sensitive work.