West Coast floods: Two hundred homes in Westport likely uninhabitable

Sunday, 18 July 2021

Ben Rasmussen and his family fled their home on Friday before it was inundated by floodwater on Saturday. They don't know when - or if - they'll be able to return.

Campervans, portable homes or upgraded welfare centres are among the options being considered for hundreds of people whose homes may have been wrecked by flooding in Westport.

About 200 homes are expected to be deemed uninhabitable in the West Coast’s Buller District.

West Coast-Tasman MP and Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor told Stuff an initial assessment of all flood-damaged properties was almost complete.

Various options on rehousing residents were being considered, he said, including bringing in temporary housing. Many have been staying with friends, family or in emergency accommodation.

* Hundreds spend night in evacuation centres as heavy rain hits parts of NZ

A kayaker makes his way down Menzies St, Westport, on Monday.

* Flights and ferries cancelled, towns cut off as weather causes chaos for transport network

The homes would need to be stripped and dried out before being relined in a number of areas around the town because of water contamination, O’Connor said.

Buller mayor Jamie Cleine previously told Stuff the town had long been dealing with a lack of available rental properties or houses for purchase which meant there were few homes available for flooded residents.

Soldiers assisted with the evacuation of more than 800 properties and 2000 residents in the Buller District over the weekend.

Trade Me had one rental listed in the entire Buller district on Saturday.

Cleine said with “next to no available rentals” already, the concerns now were about finding somewhere for displaced families to live either medium or long-term while houses were repaired or rebuilt.

O’Connor said this was the biggest flood event he had seen in Westport over his lifetime, saying it was a one in 100 year event.

Flooding in Westport in mid-July 2021. (Video first published in July 2021)

“No one can ever remember the rivers being that high.”

Some Westport residents who had to flee their homes returned on Sunday to find them flooded with water, up to waist-deep in some places, and their belongings floating past them.

“It’s shocking you know,” Ben Rasmussen said as he surveyed the carnage in his house. “It’s your whole life, what do you do? Start again?”

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wrote on Instagram that it was “devastating” to see the damage and how many homes had been affected by flooding on the West Coast.

“I know we’re all thinking of those impacted by this huge weather event.”

A Royal New Zealand Air Force NH90 helicopter and its crew arrived in Westport early on Sunday to undertake livestock assessments and welfare checks on farmers in isolated areas.

MetService meteorologist Dan Corrigan said some weather stations in the Buller area had recorded more than 300 millimetres of rain between early Friday and 3pm on Sunday. During the same period, 158mm of rain had fallen in Westport, while Reefton, in inland Buller, received 168mm of rain.

Personal protection equipment (PPE) was being provided to those returning to their homes.

The Government announced $600,000 worth of emergency relief assistance on Sunday to the districts of Buller and Marlborough, with $300,000 going to the Buller Mayoral Relief Fund, $100,000 to a similar fund in Marlborough, and $200,000 helping flood-affected farmers.

Westport township after floodwaters inundated the area in July.

A New Zealand Defence Force spokesperson said soldiers helped evacuate more than 800 properties and 2000 residents in Buller over the weekend.

“We're looking at many, many months [of work] this is a big, large-scale event,” Buller Emergency Operations Centre controller Bob Dickson said.

Acting Emergency Management Minister Kris Faafoi said about 1000 people were still unable to return home on Sunday.

Sheep try to find high ground in Westport on Saturday as heavy rain continues over the weekend.

A Buller Emergency Management spokesperson could not confirm whether those who did go home on Sunday had done so of their own accord, or if they were given the green light to go back.

West Coast District Health Board incident controller Philip Wheble said the Buller Health medical centre would remain closed for at least a week as flooding had damaged the boiler house that heated the centre and its water.

All Covid-19 vaccine appointments scheduled in Westport this week had been cancelled.

About 1900 residents in the evacuated Marlborough settlements of Renwick, Spring Creek, Tuamarina and Lower Wairau were allowed to return to their homes on Sunday as highways were reopened.

Crews from Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency spent Sunday assessing road damage, inspecting bridges and clearing debris from blocked and flooded highways.

By nightfall most of the closed highways and roads had been reopened, including the lower Buller Gorge (SH6, Westport to Inangahua) on Monday morning, and the upper Buller Gorge (Inangahua to Murchison) on Monday afternoon.

SH63 Renwick to Tophouse Road/St Arnaud was unlikely to reopen on Monday.

Maureen Pugh, a National Party List MP based near Greymouth, encouraged would-be “goose-neckers” to stay away from flood-hit streets as cars could wash water into houses.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force NH90 helicopter and its crew arrived in Westport early on Sunday to undertake livestock assessments and welfare checks on farmers in isolated areas.

Stuff understands up to 1400 cattle, many of them pregnant, were killed on one dairy farm alone in the Buller Gorge.

Pugh said the emotional trauma both for Westport residents and farmers suffering stock losses would be severe.

“The emotional trauma that is going to create, we are going to have to be very mindful of the support that’s needed both for town residents and for farmers.”