The Maitai River in flood on Wednesday. Photo: Brad McNeill

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92 Collingwood St, Nelson Ph: 546 8670 or 0274 312 874 belinda@stallardlaw.co.nz

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100% locally owned and operated What’s been your favourite positive story from the recent floods?

Inoke Latu

“The way the community responded and reached out. It’s really comforting to see the whole of Nelson work together.”

Sipu Latu

“Just how fast everything’s coming back to normal.”

Philip Wiseman

“That everyone’s sticking together. Everyone helping and people always have got places to go if they need.”

Jann McPherson

“I just think its tragic what happened to people, but the only positive thing is that the Maitai sub-development won’t go through.”

Nelson floods: What happened

SARA HOLLYMAN AND KATE RUSSELL

It has been a week like no other in Nelson-Tasman with the four-day weather bomb devastating homes and hillsides, and causing evacuations across the region. More than 700mm of rain fell over the three-day period in the Maitai area, following ten weeks of wet weather which had already left the ground sodden. The weekend’s count was 350 significant slips affecting roads and properties according to Civil Defence controller Alec Louverdis. 570 properties were impacted but that number is expected to grow as the ground continues to move with more rain forecast this week. Nine of these houses were red stickered, meaning they are not inhabitable and have had significant damage, or the ground is too unstable. 11 were yellow stickered, meaning residents may return but there is significant repair required. Civil Defence aims to have all geotech assessments complete by 5pm on Friday. They began calling affected resident’s on Tuesday to inform them of the initial status of their homes. The event saw schools closed for days and whole communities isolated, including the Upper Brook Valley, Hira and Atawhai. Nelson city schools will remain closed for the rest of this week to try and ease pressure on the roading network. A total of 459 cubic metres of water was surging through the Maitai River every second at its peak on Wednesday at 5pm. The river quickly burst its banks causing the first of evacuations in the Nile St area. Alec says evacuations “began as a trickle” but quickly rose to more than 300 homes in the Maitai area, on Friday and Saturday this number contiuned to grow. The closure of SH6 Rocks Rd and the Princes Dr/Moana Ave prompted officials to urge people to stay at home, with the only access into the city - Waimea Rd, already under immense pressure due to roadworks. The clean-up from the flooding and slips that have hit the region will take “not a matter of months, but a matter of years” says Nelson mayor Rachel Reese. Alec says the event was unprecedented. “I was in a conference call with both of the mayors trying to convince them that we didn’t need to declare an emergency and within 30-35 minutes, we went from absolutely everything normal, to absolutely everything not normal, it was something that I’ve never seen before.” He further adds that the city will take “years” to recover. “The weather event went sort of as predicted but at one stage it decided to stop moving and it hovered over some key catchments, specifically the Maitai. “That created a significant issue for us,” he says, “It surprised us how quicky [the Maitai River] increased, and in all my time as a group controller I haven’t seen that happen so quickly.” Now the attention turns to the clean up, which will be significant.

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