Marlborough flood recovery to 'stretch into months or years'

Monday, 22 August 2022

An aerial view of the damage shows a house buried in mud and chunks of road swept away by slips in the upper South Island.

Marlborough’s recovery team have been out on the water, and in the air, on Monday to understand the full extent of the flood damage, as the region gets a $100,000 Mayoral Relief Fund.

Five teams of experts, including building assessors, GeoTech engineers, Fire and Emergency and Urban Search and Rescue have been out surveying the damage in the Marlborough Sounds.

Civil Defence Marlborough regional controller Richard McNamara said the teams were undertaking structure and slip assessments work that would “carry on for the next few days”.

“But we’ve got boots on the ground there now,” McNamara said.

Branch River Bridge on State Highway 63, pictured on Saturday.

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Flooding in the Wairau Valley on Saturday.

He said they had also “ramped up” their welfare team, to help accommodate the increasing need for food and medication supplies to those residents that were cut-off.

“We're trying to co-ordinate those pockets of communities so that we can make use of either helicopter or boat trips into those areas to deliver those essential supplies,” he said.

“The [Emergency Operations Centre] will be fully staffed for the next few days, but we will be looking to transfer to more of a recovery mode, and that's longer term, that's going to stretch into months or years.”

Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty says the Mayoral Relief Fund is 'money in the bank' to get the recovery started.

Asked if there were any particular areas that were worse off, McNamara said the damage was “everywhere”.

“But having said that, locals are being resilient, they're pushing communication, co-ordinating with their neighbours and responding,” he said.

He said it was looking likely both State Highway 6, the main route to Nelson, and SH63 would remain closed for days.

“Marlborough Roads are prioritising State Highway 63, but reopening that is probably later in the week, if that,” he said.

Part of the bridge over the Branch River on SH63 had been washed away, but the river needed to drop before they could fix it, he said.

Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty on Monday announced a further $200,000 for Mayoral Relief Funds across the top of the south. Marlborough would receive $100,000 and an additional $100,000 would be contributed to Nelson Tasman.

McAnulty was in Marlborough on Monday for a flyover of the region to see the damage firsthand.

“This will take some time, there’s no point sugar coating it, but the Government will be able to provide the help this region needs.

“We covered a lot of ground in that helicopter, right across the Sounds in little bays and everywhere we looked we saw a slip, and they’ve done a lot of damage,” he said.

McAnulty said he was struck by the resilience shown by people who had been worst affected by the floods.

A slip on North Bank Rd, about 2km in from SH6.

“What I’ve been really impressed with from what I’ve seen today has been the resilience of the people here, but also their willingness to work together, [to] help their neighbours.”

McAnulty said he would be back in Marlborough on Thursday to see what additional support was needed from Government.

“We’ve cleared our schedule, we were going to meet with other councils, but we’re not going to do that now, we’re going to have our meeting here, talk about the damage and we may go to see some further areas and communities that have been hit.”

A state of emergency was declared on Friday evening for Marlborough. The scale of the damage was thought to be worse than the storm of July 2021, which damaged 460km of the region’s roads and cut off residents in the Marlborough Sounds, Waihopai Valley and Awatere Valley for months.

Marlborough mayor John Leggett called this week’s rain a “bitter pill to swallow”.

“But we must accept it and get on with the job at hand, and we are. Many of our local roads, in particular the Marlborough Sounds, will likely be inaccessible or affected for some time to come. Rest assured we will be doing all we can to get our communities connected again as quickly as possible, but it is going to take time.”

One resident, Darryl Heather-Phillips arrived back in Marlborough on Monday to find his house on Port Underwood Rd in the Marlborough Sounds “written off”.

Marlborough harbourmaster Jake Oliver said they had teams assisting Civil Defence on Sunday and Monday.

Meanwhile, flood-affected farmers in the Rai Valley had concerns regarding their stock-welfare as they remained cut-off.

Sarah White, of the Marlborough Rural Support Trust, said Rai Valley farmers were dumping milk and many had lost hay and baleage supplies.

Closer to Blenheim, residents in the North Bank-Onamalutu community had been cut off by a large slip.

“There’s no way out, there’s around 200 or so people that live on North Bank Road, and Onamalutu Road that are cut off,” Onamalutu resident Janet Steggle said.

The Rai River on Thursday night had its biggest flood on record, estimated as a 60-year event.

Tunakino, northeast of Rai Valley, had the most rain in Marlborough this week totalling 1 metre by 5pm on Saturday. The wettest day there was Thursday with 388.9mm, according to the council’s Rain Report.

Anakiwa Road, in Linkwater, has slumped.

Rai Valley at Rai Falls had the second most rain this week at 757.5mm. It was the heaviest on Wednesday with 284.5mm.

The Marlborough District Council announced on Monday it would underwrite barge services into the Kenepuru and Queen Charlotte Sounds to assist residents impacted by the flood.

Marlborough mayor John Leggett said it would some time before road access in affected areas was restored so subsidising this service is one way we can help those who are currently cut-off.

The subsidy would run in partnership with Johnsons’ Barge Service Limited in Havelock and Kenny Barging in Picton.

A portaloo has slipped down a bank on Kenepuru Road, which is still being repaired following the July 2021 storm.

Marlborough harbourmaster Jake Oliver said they had teams out on the water in the Marlborough Sounds since Sunday morning and on Monday.

“A lot of it was information gathering, so they were out with Civil Defence teams,” he said.

“The skippers’ brief was to facilitate what they needed to gather good information.”

The lower Wairau, near Grovetown in flood.

Oliver said they had one boat in the Queen Charlotte Sound, and one in the Pelorus Sound on Monday.

“The information coming back at the moment, as everyone is aware … there are quite a few slips.

“And there is debris in the water … we’re advising everyone to take extra caution as they navigate out of the Sounds.

“There’s been one water taxi that has hit debris, but we’ve not had any major incidents. People are being careful.”

Stuff has travelled over the flooded Marlborough region to examine the extent of the damage after a devastating storm. Video first published August 21, 2022.

A resident in the north-western outer reaches of the Marlborough Sounds described feeling “isolated” and “cut-off” after slips and washouts knocked out their power supply and telephones and rendered their roads unpassable.

Ngāio Bay eco-stay holiday cottage owner Jude Sonneland said she and her husband Roger spent the weekend without power or contact with the outside world following heavy rain on Friday.

“We haven’t seen or spoken to anybody else since this whole episode began, so we’re feeling really cut off. We’re OK, just feeling pretty isolated,” she said on Monday.

Sonneland said her power and phone lines went down about 5pm Friday evening, but were restored lunchtime on Monday, which brought her some solace.

“The power’s just come on for the first time in three days and the phone’s just come on, so things are a bit brighter than they were this morning.

“You just have to cope, don’t you? There’s nothing much we can do, we’ve got candles, we’ve got a battery radio, we’ve got a wood stove, but no we’ve had no contact with the outside world because the phone was out as well,” she said.

“Our access road has got major slips, and a whole wash out where the road has actually disappeared, so that’s going to be quite a large repair job before we can even think about getting out.

“Our supplies are OK, we had some supplies sent in by boat, after our daughter managed to find a mussel farm guy who offered to bring us some supplies, but that was yesterday morning, so we’re hoping the stuff in the chilly bin is still OK, and our fridge is OK, we haven’t opened the freezer yet, so hopefully that won’t be too bad.

“But we’re OK, we’ve got the basics. We’ve got a gas hob and a wood stove, it’s pretty basic, but we’re not starving,” Sonneland said.

Oliver said they would continue to support Civil Defence, but would also start to assess their navigation network.

“We’re looking at various other options to get further out into the Marlborough Sound quicker to make assessments that will aid the navigation network.”

Tory Channel resident Tim Healy said there had been a lot of “slipping” and debris run-off around the shoreline.

He thought they had got off “reasonably light”, compared to other parts of the Sounds.

“I think our problem here when you get a heavy rainfall, where there’s been a lot of earthworks and tracks made, you get a lot of silt run-off.”

For information on barge services visit the Johnson’s Barge Service Ltd Facebook page: www.facebook.com/johnsonsbargeserviceltd or the Kenny Barging Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/kennybarging.

Anyone displaced by flooding or road closures was encouraged to contact the Marlborough Emergency Management by emailing teamwelfare@marlborough.govt.nz or by phoning 03 520 7400.