Pumping of flooded properties continues over weekend

8.00pm

Residents and council staff were still pumping water off properties in the Bay of Plenty today as the cleanup from last week's devastating floods continues.

Whakatane District Council spokeswoman Diane Turner said while flood waters on the lower Rangitaiki Plain, near the town of Edgecumbe, had receded dozens of properties were still underwater.

"Getting the water off them is a very slow process," she told NZPA.

Large parts of the eastern Bay of Plenty were flooded last weekend after the area received about 250mm of rain in 48 hours. The flood damage was compounded by slips caused by a swarm of over 200 quakes which started last Sunday and is still continuing.

On Friday there were still about 60-70 houses either still underwater or deemed uninhabitable as a result of the flooding.

Ms Turner said over the weekend residents had been allowed back into some of those houses and council staff had worked to assess what needed to be done to badly flood affected houses to make them habitable again.

Work on the district's roading network was continuing, but State Highway 2 between Whakatane and Tauranga remained closed by a slip at Matata.

Damage to roads in the area was estimated at about $5.5 million, she said.

The district was still in a state of civil emergency, which would be reviewed at 4pm tomorrow.

Nearby Opotiki District Council lifted their state of emergency on Friday.

Ms Turner said a lot of work had been done over the weekend to set up a recovery office to take over co-ordinating relief efforts for the area from the two districts' councils.

The office would take over the recovery efforts tomorrow, she said.

Meanwhile two more quakes were felt in the area today. The Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences said a 3.9 magnitude quake hit 20km north west of Kawerau at 6.25am. It was centred 5km deep.

A second quake measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale hit in the same location at 2.04pm.

- NZPA