With rain still falling in the Gisborne area after severe flooding, roading contractors are trying to repair routes to areas where residents are cut off, and detours round closed highway.
Damage to roads north of Gisborne after torrential rain and flooding. Photo: Tairāwhiti Contractors
State Highway 35 remains closed between Tolaga Bay and Potaka due to slips and other hazards, and local roads north of Gisborne are shut, but Gisborne is no longer cut off.
The main damage on the closed SH35 section is at Tokomaru Bay where a large chunk of the Mangahauini Bridge has been swept away.
Tairāwhiti Contractors director Kat Kaiwai said the focus today was roads to areas where locals have been cut off and detour routes round the closed state highway.
"Trying to get food and just the basics, water ... to people who have been cut off" - Tairāwhiti Contractors director Kat Kaiwai
"Just trying to get alternative routes in for supplies and emergency things ... and for people to still be able to access the [Te Puia Springs] hospital."
People are getting to the hospital, Te Whare Hauora o Ngati Porou, by going back through Gisborne, by helicopter, or through the river, she said, or are not able to get there at all.
"We're at the peak of Omicron, with Covid, and people have been trying to isolate, plus now they're isolated all around the region.
"The main thing at the moment has been trying to get power to places that have been cut off, and trying to get medical supplies up, and trying to get food and just the basics, water and everything, to people who have been cut off.
Kaiwai said the next step on the bridge at Tokomaru Bay was inspection by engineers.
MetService said there was heavy rain in Gisborne, Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa overnight, and the storm was expected to move back north today - causing trouble for Gisborne in particular for a few more days.
The approach to the bridge at Tokomaru Bay has been washed out. Photo: NZ Police
Tolaga Bay civil defence manager Greg Shelton said roads open now might be closed over the next week due to unstable land.
Shelton said land moved for a long time after a heavy rain event, so more slips were possible.
He said not much could be be done until the rain, which had made the ground "like porridge", had passed.
All bridges, apart from at Tokomaru Bay, were useable and there was very little forestry debris, he said.
Tokomaru Bay farmer Colin Skudder said some of his stock was carried away in floodwaters and a neighbour lost 30 heifers.
Some of the animals had survived, he said. "I've seen a couple of cows in Tokomaru Bay that washed up on the beach, they're still arrive, roaming around."
Last year's floods cost him $100,000 in repair and maintenance and this week's will cost "loads more", including fixing a lot of fencing.
"You're best just to go for a good drive around, take it all in and then just prioritise what needs to be done first and just chip away at it. That's about all you can do."
"You're best just to go for a good drive around, take it all in and then just prioritise what needs to be done first and just chip a way at it. That's about all you can do." Farmer Colin Skudder
'Coastie moment'
A Tokomaru Bay cafe is bringing out the mops and buckets after the week's floods, but half of their staff are stuck on the other side of town due to the bridge washout.
"Local young men all got on their horses and ferried stuff backwards and forwards across the river" - Cafe 35 owner Peter Cunningham
Cafe 35 owner Peter Cunningham said he had been told it would take at least two weeks before the Mangahauini Bridge would be be back in operation. The local Four Square also has staff unable to get to work, he said.
"Yesterday ... when the provisions couldn't get across, the local young men all got on their horses and came down and ferried stuff backwards and forwards across the river. It was a real Coastie moment.
"There's a lot of silt and that sort of stuff everywhere," he said, and there is damage to flooring and electrical goods.
"We'll get through - you just have to get on with it."