'I thought hills were coming down,' says resident after latest floods

Struggling Matata residents in the Bay of Plenty are reeling once again after a major deluge yesterday caused landslides, closed roads and the railway line and shut down telecommunications.

The latest downpour - 150mm in 24 hours - has left some residents incensed after makeshift measures introduced after the severe flooding last year failed to prevent surface flooding yesterday.

Resident Haylie Turner, who said she was packed and ready for an evacuation, was frightened by the thunder: "The whole house shook, the TV and everything was shaking ... At one stage I actually jumped up in the night and grabbed one of my babies, because I've got a newborn. I actually thought the hills were coming down. That is how bad the thunder and lightning was, the whole sky went silver."

Matata Domain Motor Camp caretaker Peter Honan said: "People are getting rather angry, as you could well imagine. We weren't affected but I've got a lot of good friends in this town who were and I am starting to feel very angry for them."

Mr Honan blamed the Government, Whakatane District Council, Department of Conservation, and Environment BOP for "all ducking the real issue".

Last year's floods were caused by a "dam up behind the hills that burst and let go". But nothing had been done to secure the bank, Mr Honan said. "Now what's happened, it's just loosened that much rubble. Now every time we get rain we are going to have this problem."

The railway line was last night closed 4km north of Matata, as was State Highway 2. Authorities were to reassess the situation this morning.

No one was evacuated from their homes but about nine people were stranded at the Matata Hotel.

The Waimana gorge between Waimana and Taneatua also remained closed last night as the result of a slip, police said.

On Friday night, police reported extensive flooding on SH1 between Manakau and Levin in the lower North Island. In Lower Hutt, heavy rain caused surface flooding on SH2.

Mr Honan said the latest flood was maybe the best thing that could have happened. The town was frustrated at the authorities' "absolute inaction", and locals were considering taking charge, he said.

Locals had talked about hiring a digger and doing the stabilising work themselves, a job he estimated would take only six weeks. "I'm quite sure we've got enough brains in this town to do a damn-sight better job than what's happened in the last couple of months."

'Blocked up'

Another resident, Bill Whalley, who has been unable to return to his Clem Elliot Dr home since May, said temporary culverts installed by Ontrack had "blocked up" in the latest deluge.

Whakatane District Council councillor Graeme Hanlen said the council was in a difficult situation. "If we make hasty decisions, we are going to be dumped on. If we take too long we are going to be dumped on."

He believed the council had "kept things moving" but there was an "awful lot" of planning work that had to be done before the flooding problems in Matata could be solved.

"Just to rip in with bulldozers is a simplistic outlook. I can fully understand where they are coming from and sympathies are with them, but at the end of the day we (council) have done extremely well."

Environment Bay of Plenty chairman John Cronin disagreed that the regional council was partly to blame for the floods and said the blame should lay with Ontrack, the Government rail infrastructure company.

Mr Cronin said he understood the frustration of locals but there was a rule of law to abide by so he didn't agree with locals taking the matter into their own hands.

Ontrack communications adviser Kevin Ramshaw said there was an issue with the way the culverts were built. "We ... came up with a short-term solution, it wasn't what was ideal, we lived with it. I don't think we would be happy to accept the blame," he said.

Telecom said phone lines, broadband services, mobile phone sites and Eftpos were affected, but telephone lines were back up by about 7.30pm. Spokeswoman Sarah Berry said 111 services were not affected.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY