KEY POINTS:
Severe flooding in the Far North and Bay of Islands has left an estimated repair bill of up to $80 million.
Civil defence and emergency agencies said that estimate included about $20 million for damage to the local roading network alone. The one-in-150-year event left a trail of destruction across rural and urban areas, Far North District Council spokesman Rick McCall said. Preliminary assessments suggested as many as 3000ha of Far North farmland were affected.
About 2000 homes were without power or phones during the peak of the flooding, but power had since been restored to all properties.
There were still problems with the fresh water supply at Paihia, Waitangi, Haruru Falls, Opua and Kawakawa. Fire Service appliances pumped water into main pipes, while council staff continued to repair centralised pumps. Residents were told to restrict water use to the absolute minimum and boil all drinking water until further notice. Water quality was expected to be back to safe levels by Monday.
McCall said costs were difficult to calculate until more detailed reports were available from individual sectors such as the farming community, utilities suppliers and the insurance industry. Civil Defence Minister Rick Barker flew over the flood-ravaged areas yesterday and praised Northland civil defence agencies for the way the disaster had been handled.
He said the emergency response had gone like clockwork, and he was "very impressed" with the remedial work taking place.
"This is not just a reflection on the civil defence network but also on the resilience of the people of the north and on the utilities providers and contractors who have been working into the night to get the damage repaired," he said. Council staff were carrying out door-to-door surveys of the worst-affected areas at Paihia and Opua yesterday and move to Russell today. Contractors have been working through the weekend to clear the remaining few roads still closed due to slips and flood damage, including State Highway 11A between Opua and Kawakawa. This section of highway is available only to local residents, 4WDs and commercial vehicles.
All local roads are now open, other than the bridge in the Stone Store Basin at Kerikeri. Contractors are still working on slip and flood repairs on the roads, so motorists could still face short delays.
Around 260 people required emergency accommodation on Thursday night after their vehicles were trapped by slips or flooding; 62 were placed in emergency accommodation, and 202 were temporarily accommodated at hotels and motels, McCall said.
As many as 228 individual properties were affected by the storm, including up to 50 business premises and 121 homes flooded, and some 50 properties with structural damage. The owner of Wharepuku Subtropical Gardens, Robin Booth, said his garden was drying out - the only major damage had been losing a lot of gravel off the driveways and walking paths.
"Everything is basically all tidied up now. It was quite entrancing, actually... We could see the river rising all the time... It rose about 18 inches in an hour. It was just the immense power of it all."
Booth said this flood had nothing on the huge 1981 flood, when 400ml of rain fell in 10 hours. "This was 375[ml] in 38 hours. It didn't compare." But it has made a good talking point. Robin said he had heard stories of a yacht towing a caravan in the floodwaters.
- NZPA and staff reporters
