KEY POINTS:
As the cleanup in the Far North begins, for the second time in four months, some residents must be wondering whether they should just up sticks and move out.
I was listening to the district's mayor, Yvonne Sharp, explaining how some people had only just shifted back into their homes after months of living out of suitcases and how the Kaeo rugby club had just put down the new floor in its clubrooms, when the town was hit with another flood and the residents with another soul-destroying time of picking up the pieces.
The Insurance Council has promised that premiums will rise after the $7 million bill insurers picked up for the Taranaki tornadoes, the $50 million snowstorm down south and, of course, March's $10 million flood in the Far North.
In all, the insurance industry paid out $800 million in climate-related damages last year and that bill doesn't look like getting any smaller in the foreseeable future.
Now Helen Clark has suggested that it might be time for settlements in low-lying regions to consider relocating. As she says, these settlements were founded when there were fewer people and different weather patterns and, in some cases, when the rivers had different routes. Now she thinks it might be time for humans to realise that when it comes to nature, there's only going to be one winner.
Her comments got plenty of reaction from people who were quick to point out that local councils gave people permission to subdivide and build - and if they had granted consents, then surely the councils were liable if people were forced to move.
Failures by councils to keep rivers and streams clear of debris and silt, a lack of planning when it came to subdivisions and the loss of forestry and wetlands have all contributed to the problem of flash flooding. So what do we all do now? Give up the dream of a home by the sea in which to spend our golden years?
Pay more in rates to fund King Canute projects that will attempt to hold back the tide?
Pay more in insurance premiums so that when the projects fail, we can replace our lounge suites? The answer might be all of the above.
