Extended issue on floods and their impact

MURRAY KING, EDITORIAL CONVENOR, CILT NZ

This issue is an extended one, 32 pages, to give us space to cover the recent storms and their impact.

IN JANUARY AND FEBRUARY there were three events, a major storm on Auckland Anniversary Day; Cyclone Hale in midJanuary, and Cyclone Gabrielle a month later. The worst in terms of damage was Cyclone Gabrielle. This caused flooding on a large scale, with slips and flooding across Taira - whiti and Hawke's Bay, loss of life, and major property damage. The map attached shows the significant extent of the flooding in Hawke's Bay, courtesy of Dragonfly Data Analytics.

Storms like these damage infrastructure, resulting in closures for road and rail in particular. In Northland road and rail were affected between Auckland and Whanga - rei. While the roads have been repaired, the North Auckland rail line is still closed by a large overslip at Tahekeroa. In Auckland many local roads were flooded, and coastal communities cut off. There was also damage to the Western metro line, which is open but with repair works under way.

However the brunt of the storms was taken by east coast regions. State Highways 2, 5, 35, 50 and 51 were closed, with extensive bridge damage. Supplies to and from the region were extensively disrupted. As Booth’s Logistics’ Executive Director Stewart Taylor notes, road transport is not that useful if there are no roads. The same can be said for rail too. Before all the roads reopened, some very long detours had to be taken.

Only in mid-June has the last of the 11 temporary Bailey bridge connections been made on the worst affected parts of SH35 and SH2. The railway line from Woodville to Wairoa was closed by Gabrielle, and has only been reopened as far as Hastings. A bridge at Awatoto being washed away means that Napier won’t be reconnected until the end of the year. Meanwhile, road bridging solutions are in place for traffic to Napier Port. No date has yet been given for reopening on the line north of Napier. In this issue we have extensive coverage on road and rail impacts. But the storms, especially Gabrielle, did more than damage infrastructure. They disconnected communities, even cutting telecommunications, resulting in satellitebased solutions being used. We have an article on plans to make their use permanent across the country. The storms ruined crops, even tree crops and vines, so that the production of the region will be down for a year at least. This flows on to activities like packhouses, trucking, logistics operators, and the port itself. Even the post was disrupted. We explore each of these impacts in articles in this edition.

The storms also disrupted people’s lives as priorities shifted from work to home. We offer our sympathies and best wishes to those who have had serious losses, and those whose employment may be made precarious by impacts on the local economy and production. And yet we have heard a number of stories of people, including transport and logistics people, going the extra mile and working long hours to restore services. And transport firms also stepped in with gear, including generators, to help people cope. The Port of Napier even made a part of the port available for a temporary army camp! Emergency management teams swung into action in Hawke's Bay. At the same time the Red Cross mobilised its forces around the country to cope with all the logistical issues around disaster relief, including IT and telecommunications. The council is now faced with a mammoth silt removal task, and together with the Hawke's Bay Regional Council has put together a task force to deal with it. Up to 5 million cubic metres of silt have been deposited on roads, railways, orchards, farms and houses.

The map of the flooding impacts on the adjacent page has kindly been supplied by Dragonfly Data Science.

Dragonfly Data Science is a Wellington based data science organisation. They specialise in data science, statistical analysis, and machine learning, supported by robust software engineering, clear communication, and a sprinkle of creative flair. Since 2006, they’ve been collaborating with governments and organisations across the globe, turning their data into beautiful, meaningful apps and reports that are driving positive and lasting changes to the environment and our communities. Their work ranges from measuring the effects of forest fires in California, tracking mutations of COVID-19 to modelling endangered bird populations and as seen here using satellite imagery to model the impact of weather events.

Although Air New Zealand’s services were disrupted by the cyclone, they were quickly restored to Napier and Gisborne, as the airports remained accessible (after confirmation by a special flight to Gisborne). And with an aircraft overnighting in Napier, a daily return service to Gisborne was run for a month to restore some communication between the two cities, which was not possible by road.

And as you will have noticed, we have some other good news too. A long standing member of CILT and its predecessor CIT has been made a Dame Companion of the Order of New Zealand, and we celebrate that in a tribute.