In Tairāwhiti, farmers near Tolaga Bay saw forestry slash and land damage from winds and heavy rain as a result of Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Supplied / Bridget Parker
In Tairāwhiti, farmers near Tolaga Bay saw forestry slash and land damage from winds and heavy rain as a result of Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Supplied / Bridget Parker
There is widespread damage to farms across the North Island, with those in parts of Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay particularly hard hit, and forestry slash is once again a huge problem.
Tolaga Bay farmer Bridget Parker said forestry slash has caused a huge amount of damage to her farm yet again.
“It’s enormous; there is silt all over the road. It’s so thick you can’t walk through it; there are logs as far as the eye can see. There is so many logs all the fences are down; wherever you look it’s total carnage.”
Parker, whose farm has been destroyed by forestry slash during storms multiple times, said they can look at forecasts for rain, wind, drought and even tides but they could not predict what was going to happen when it came to the logs.
“There’s floodwaters everywhere, in our house, in our sheds. It’s far higher than last time and we are really really struggling to cope; we’re really angry.”
Hawke’s Bay area “smashed”
Forestry slash has also caused issues on farms in Hawke’s Bay where there was widespread flooding and slips.
Suz Bremner, who runs sheep, beef and Friesian bulls along the Taihape Napier Road, said she has never seen damage like it.
“I tipped out the rain gauge this morning. It was overflowing at 170 millimetres so we don’t know how much we’ve had.
“The power is out but from what we are hearing from people nearby is that the wider Hawke’s Bay area has just been smashed.”
A fallen gum tree behind a "beware of falling branches" sign in Mārewa, Hawke's Bay. Photo / Supplied / Paula Thomas
Bremner said she went for a drive around her farm yesterday morning to assess the damage but roads were blocked by trees while tracks have been washed away.
“Looking at some of our neighbours who have big cliff faces on their properties the slip damage is horrendous.
“We have a road through the top end of our farm and we turned down there this morning and my husband and I could not believe our eyes. The slash that had washed down through the creeks is unreal; I’ve never seen that before.
“I think the forestry has come down and created a dam and then during the night it’s just exploded and now there’s slash everywhere,” she said.
Other farmers RNZ spoke to in Hawke’s Bay yesterday said they were hunkering down waiting for the worst of the weather to pass before getting out to assess the level of damage.
Coromandel has multiple road closures with access to much of the peninsula cut off.
Whitianga dairy farmer Dirk Sieling said the wind was howling on Tuesday night and took down trees - with gusts of up to 120km/hr.
He said he might have to dump milk because there was no way for tankers to access his farm.
A slip across the road at Sailors Grave, near Tairua, during Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Supplied / Leonard Powell
The power has been knocked out and Sieling said they were hoping it would not be out for too long, as the cows needed to be milked somehow.
“Cows are fortunately on once-a-day at the moment so we can put it off during the day and we can always ask the neighbours if they have power and we can run them through there. But yes they do need to be milked or they become very uncomfortable. We are just keeping our fingers crossed,” he said.
Coromandel Federated Farmers president Rob Craw said reports were still to come in but he was anticipating significant damage on farms, given the level of damage on roads with slips, trees down and surface flooding.
Meanwhile, in Northland dairy farmers still without power were urgently working to source generators.
Widespread power outages mean some farmers are having to walk their herds long distances to neighbouring farms to be milked.
The region’s Federated Farmers president Colin Hannah said Federated Farmers and DairyNZ were working to source generators but with widespread power outages across the North Island that was proving difficult.
“Another 62 millimetres of rain fell overnight bringing the total for the month to 416mm, so there is widespread flooding and a lot of trees down.”
Todd Imeson who runs two dairy farms on the Hikurangi Swamp said he was used to his farms flooding but this was one of the worst he has experienced.
“Luckily we have power at one of our milking sheds and we have some higher areas we can keep the cows on but in order to get them to the shed they have to walk through water which is up to their bellies.”
