Engineers set to plug breach in river stopbank

By ELIZABETH BINNING

More than 16,000 tonnes of gravel and rock are being used to fill the 100m gap in the Rangitaiki stopbank which is allowing large quantities of floodwater to flow into already saturated farmland.

Environment Bay of Plenty engineers will today begin trying to fill the gap which opened on Sunday after 250mm of water fell in 48 hours, much of it pouring down the swollen Rangitaiki River.

Flooded roads and muddy paddocks had prevented workers from getting to the damaged stopbank until yesterday when a 700m-long road to the breach, just above Edgecumbe, was completed.

Environment Bay of Plenty spokesman Bruce Fraser said work was now under way to fill the breach, using more than 16,000 tonnes of rock and gravel. A new stopbank will then be built above it.

Further downstream modified shipping containers are being used to prevent river water spilling through controlled cuts in the stopbank during high tides.

Mr Fraser said plugging the breach and using the controlled cuts would help to reduce the flow of water which has been spilling into the Rangitaiki Plains where dozens of farms remain underwater.

Whakatane District Council spokeswoman Mary Hermanson said the plains were one of the last areas to flood. Many families from that area were still unable to return home.

Residents from most other parts of the Bay of Plenty were allowed to return to their sodden homes this week.

Yesterday, the evacuation centre at Whakatane War Memorial Hall was closed as the number of people needing emergency accommodation dropped. Mrs Hermanson said there were still up to 100 people staying at two local marae and an unknown number of people staying with friends, family and neighbours.

For those families who have returned home Mrs Hermanson said the hardest part of the flooding was still to come.

"Now it's the clean- up period and in some ways that's a lot harder [than what's already happened]," she said.

Sixty-six Whakatane homes and 10 in Edgecumbe have been ruled uninhabitable because of damage to internal walls. Many others are still to be assessed.

Meanwhile, the weather forecast is looking more positive.

A special weather advisory issued for parts of the North Island do not apply to the flooded Whakatane/Opotiki regions.

Metservice forecaster Andy Downs said that while there may have been some showers last night the weather looked generally fine for the affected areas during the next few days.