Whakatane state of emergency lifted

4.45pm

The civil defence emergency in Whakatane is officially over.

It was lifted at 4pm today after being in force since heavy rain flooded the region on the night of July 17.

Since the deluge two weeks ago, further rain has made the clean up more difficult and threatened repairs to roads, homes and river stopbanks.

Most main roads have been at least partially cleared and all services and facilities are operational again, says Whakatane mayor Colin Hammond.

"However, the situation in the Eastern Bay of Plenty remains very fragile and will be continuously monitored for the foreseeable future."

Eastern Bay of Plenty Disaster Recovery Centre spokeswoman Linda Thompson told NZPA the sunshine should raise spirits.

"I remember from when I was down in the Manawatu (flooding in February this year), as soon as the sun is shining people feel a lot better about themselves and they can get stuff dry too. There will be lots of cleaning up going on today I would think."

She said the region's roads were now much clearer and although the main access road to Tauranga was still down to one lane in places, there were few delays.

Ms Thompson said as at last night there were 2850 registered evacuees.

"If people are able to get out they are registering. It doesn't mean they are out of their homes, it just means they had evacuated at some point."

That number was probably incomplete as some people in rural areas still hadn't been able to get out to register. About 70 evacuees were still in temporary accommodation.

Ms Thompson said the recovery centre was fully operational now co-ordinating recovery services.

Thornton School was returning to normality yesterday, with students finally returning after the floods. One kohanga reo in the region is still shut.

Two main access roads into the region remained permanently or partially closed last night. State Highway 38 to Ruatahuna won't open again until late August while State Highway 35 from Opotiki to Te Kaha is open for about an hour three times a day for essential traffic.

Four local roads in Whakatane were also closed with others also opening temporarily at times during the day. All Opotiki roads were open.

A total of 141 homes have so far been deemed uninhabitable until the are repaired and of those, 111 do not have contents insurance. Forty-six homes are affected by landslips and seven of those are off limits to residents.

On the Rangitaiki Plain, about half of the surface was flooded. About 27,000ha was under water with about 17,000ha of that farmland.

Severe silting in the Waiotahi area will mean about 4000ha of pasture will need re-grassing.

Kiwifruit, berry and flower growers have also been hit by the flooding and about 15 orchards have been affected.

- HERALD STAFF AND NZPA