Mayor's Message - Rain at worst – region at best
Mother Nature has been picking on us over the past two months with repeated torrential rain events hitting the region. The first, on Monday 26 May, was short, flooding about a dozen properties in the central city, overwhelming our wastewater pumps in Stoke and severely damaging the pest-proof fences at the Brook Waimārama Sanctuary.
The second hit came on 26 June and triggered a Nelson Tasman State of Emergency. Worst affected were the Wai-iti, Motueka and Moutere rivers. Two houses in Nelson City were yellow stickered and Rocks Road was closed. Tasman bore the brunt of this event with extensive damage to hop gardens, homes and farms and a tragic fatality in Wai-iti.
The third blow came last Friday. We had only lifted the State of Emergency on the Monday and had to reintroduce it. The Tadmor and Wai-iti rivers were the worst hit. Dozens of homes were flooded, and farms wrecked. The gale-force winds that accompanied this event cut power to about 13,000 homes, toppled thousands of trees and again closed our state highways.
We can be proud of how our emergency services, welfare agencies, Government, iwi and communities have responded. I have spent multiple weekends at our joint Nelson Tasman Emergency Operations Centre. Our two councils’ teams have worked hard together. Special thanks is owed to the contractors who have worked hideous hours in atrocious conditions to get our roads, power, communications and water services repaired so quickly.
Tasman Mayor Tim King and I have launched a Mayoral Relief Fund for those worst affected and raised an initial $180,000. A donation to this fund is a practical way we can help our country cousins.
There can always be improvements in how we manage these events. I have again pleaded the case with Ministers for a rain radar for our region. A single website for road closure information, rather than the current separate NZTA and Council sites would work better. We also need to improve the resilience of our mobile phone network with more battery and satellite backup.
Long-term investments to improve our flood protections are required such as the just-announced $6 million project on the Maitai River.
The record rainfall has been hideous but the way our councils and communities have come together is our region at its best.
Mayor Nick Smith
