Edgecumbe Flood Recovery Team still on the job, inching closer to getting all homeowners home

Last year's devastating flood in Edgecumbe. Photo/File

Whakatane District Council's Flood Recovery Team continues to work on getting everyone home.

The team was established following the April 2017 floods that saw all of Edgecumbe evacuated and people from other parts of the Eastern Bay of Plenty forced to leave their homes.

Flood Recovery manager Barbara Dempsey said the team would be around for as long as it took to get everyone home or within reach of being home.

"There are some people who have chosen to demolish their homes and rebuild or make significant alterations/improvements to what they had before the flood and these projects could take a while," Dempsey said.

"Our role will continue until people who were evacuated are back home or working toward being back home."

Right now 86 per cent, or 262, of the 305 homes that were yellow stickered, have been repaired and are being lived in again.

"We have changed the way we are reporting things," Dempsey said.

"Instead of a fortnightly report of full statistics recording everything that has happened, we are now focused on who is home and who is not."

Recovery Team-employed Navigators are still working with flood victims to help them get back on their feet.

"I think we're still a few months away from getting to the 100 per cent and everyone has, not returned to normal, but entered the new normal."