Flooding and debris on the road to Hahei at Cook's Beach, Coromandel. Photo / Mike Scott
Flooding and debris on the road to Hahei at Cook's Beach, Coromandel. Photo / Mike Scott
Thames Coromandel District Council has opened a special mayoral disaster relief fund to help locals suffering financial hardship because of damages caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.
“We know the last week has been tough for many individuals, families, community organisations, small businesses, and marae in the Coromandel,” the council says.
The fund provides one-off financial support which can be used to clean debris from properties where people are uninsured or underinsured, to assist people with basic needs, household goods, insurance excess payments, personal items where the individual/family or to assist small businesses impacted by the cyclone.
The amount available to each applicant that meets the criteria is $1000 or $2500. The amount granted will depend on the circumstances of the applicant.
Thames-Coromandel mayor Len Salt says the council’s focus over the weekend and into next week was on welfare, getting medicines, food and water to vulnerable and isolated communities and opening up access routes.
“We’re in this together, and there’s never been a more important need for that spirit of Coromandel resilience and support for each other to continue,” Salt says.
Thames-Coromandel District mayor Len Salt. Photo / Supplied
Apart from setting up the fund, the council has also granted ratepayers of properties that have been deemed uninhabitable (red stickered) an automatic rates remission and extended the payment date for the current rates payments for all ratepayers to 15 March.
In an open letter distributed via the council newsletter, Salt reflected on the past week.
“On Wednesday, I stood in the EOC [Emergency Operations Centre] with Transport Minister Michael Wood and watched as Civil Defence Controller Garry Towler led his team of 150 personnel from around the district through the morning briefing. I’ve never been more proud of our people, or more grateful for their selfless contributions.”
Salt says Cyclone Gabrielle had been particularly tough for everybody in the district since it followed five weeks of severe storm events and record-breaking rain.
Two people wade through waist-high water after abandoning their car on the road to Hahei on the Coromandel Peninsula as Cyclone Gabrielle brought extreme weather to New Zealand. Photo / Matthew Davison
“The impact on our roading and infrastructure has been severe.
“Our emergency roading budget was wiped out in the November storm. We’re now using retained earnings to pay for roading repairs. We’ve still got four months to go before the end of the financial year and the well is running dry.”
He says the council needed help from the Government to amp up the district’s roading resilience and infrastructure capabilities.
“Central government needs to commit to a huge investment...on a scale never seen before,” Salt says.
“The support needed will be tens of millions in the short term and hundreds of millions in the long term as we manage the effects of climate change.”
Aerial view of State Highway 25a from Kopu to Hikuai which is closed until further notice. The road was washed out near the summit during heavy rain on the Coromandel Peninsula at the end of January. Photo / Philip Hart
He says this had to be an “all party” commitment.
“Politicians from all sides need to commit to making the investments in our communities, and to working together to make it happen.
“Any politician who isn’t prepared to make that commitment isn’t welcome in my office.”
The government has so far made an initial contribution of $100,000 to the mayoral disaster relief fund.
The closing date for applying to the fund is March 10.The fund is a last resort measure when people have exhausted other appropriate sources such as Work and Income New Zealand or other government agencies.
If you would like to donate to help the Coromandel communities, the council also has a dedicated bank account 01-0455-0090620-02. Use your phone number as Particulars and ReliefFund as Reference.
