Pumping out last of flood

By ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE

The last pockets of water are being pumped off the Rangitaiki Plains, more than two weeks after heavy rain swamped the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

Manning the pumps day and night have been regional council staff, Federated Farmers members, landowners and dozens of volunteers.

Only a few areas were still underwater late yesterday.

"It has been a great co-operative effort," said Environment Bay of Plenty chief executive Jeff Jones.

The regional council planned to meet the initial costs of the pumping, likely to total more than $300,000, he said. It would seek to recover the money later from the Government's disaster relief fund.

Environment BoP had responsibility for the drainage and flood control of the Rangitaiki Plains.

"In any case, failure of the stopbank led to much of the water that needed pumping off the land," said Mr Jones.

The Eastern Bay Energy Trust had offered to help towards the cost of running the 120 or so water pumps, which consumed up to 10,000 litres of diesel a day.

A Whakatane service station, Shell Kopeopeo, was also donating fuel.

Mr Jones said the use of volunteer labour and farmers' tractors had helped keep expenses down.

Initial results of a survey to determine the extent of flood damage are expected this week.

Questionnaires were distributed to 1300 rural households, 40 businesses and 3000 residents in the Opotiki and Whakatane region.

So far, district inspectors have visited about 1000 Whakatane homes, 346 of which have suffered flood or landslip damage. A total of 21 Opotiki homes have been damaged.

Eastern Bay of Plenty disaster recovery centre spokeswoman Donna Young said the number of registered evacuees stood 3136 late yesterday.