Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern sees devastation in Nelson first hand

Monday, 22 August 2022

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern visits Nelson to meet residents affected by the August floods and land slips. First published August 22.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has heard first-hand the stories of some Nelson residents caught by the four-day weather bomb that pummelled the top of the South Island.

Starting along Nile St on Monday where residents were evacuated last Wednesday when the Maitai River burst its banks, Ardern visited the red-stickered home of photographer Evan Barnes and met his daughter, Elisha, and granddaughter, Emlyn, aged 3. All three had to escape the rising floodwaters.

Ardern also spoke to 12-year-old Robert Green-Brock on Nile St. Robert’s family were also evacuated, an event he described as “a bit scary”. It was good to speak to the Prime Minister, he said.

Eighty-nine-year-old Mary Willett told Ardern about her experience last Wednesday when she woke from a nap to find floodwaters surrounding her Clouston Tce home.

**READ MORE:

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to Emlyn, aged 3, during a visit of some properties in Nelson affected by the four-day weather bomb. Emlyn’s mum, Elisha, left, and grandfather Evan Barnes look on. All three had to escape Barnes’ house on Wednesday as it flooded. The house has since been red stickered.

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Afterwards, Willett was kicking herself, saying she forgot to tell the Prime Minister that she was carried out of her home by “a lovely firefighter”.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern inspects a slip along Atmore Tce in Nelson.

Hanby Park resident Jo Rowland also met Ardern on Nile St with Maia, 4, and Frankie, 1. She told the Prime Minister that when the call came to evacuate, they were unable to drive to safety.

“We got stuck,” Rowland said to a Stuff reporter after Ardern left. “We had to walk out in the rain.”

The children were frightened by the experience.

“It would be good to have a marker in the river to know when to leave,” Rowland said.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to Amara, 7, along Nile St in Nelson, as David Wheeler, Christine Hafermatz-Wheeler and Robert, 12, look on.

From the flood-affected streets in the valley, Ardern and her entourage headed up to Cleveland Tce and Atmore Tce, which were affected by slips.

Cleveland Tce residents Kimberly Bortnick and Sarah Thornton gave Ardern a hug and posed for pictures before telling her about their evacuations in the early hours of Friday morning.

Ardern stopped to look at the ladder-only access for Atmore Tce resident Francis Lagrutta who was winched to safety about 4am on Friday.

The Prime Minister waved at Lagrutta, who had a hip replacement week before the weather bomb so emergency services personnel decided it was best to winch him out by crane while he was on a stretcher.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern meets Cleveland Terrace resident Kimberly Bortnick. Looking on is Nelson MP Rachel Boyack.

Lagrutta’s wife, Victoria Fisher, on Friday said Fire and Emergency NZ had been incredibly helpful during the evacuation, despite them being under “enormous stress”. Two volunteers helped carry the couple’s dogs down a ladder during the evacuation.

“We’re so lucky to have such thoughtful people in our community.”

The slip that prompted the evacuations of Bortnick, Thornton, Lagrutta and their families knocked down a large tree and took a car from the road above down to the fence at the back of Thornton’s property.

Nile St resident Evan Barnes escorts Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to his red-stickered home.

“Our fence is holding it,” Thornton said.

From the hills, Ardern came down to the Atawhai Drive near the intersection with Iwa Rd to look at a large slip. Standing in the porridge-like mud, Ardern listened as Civil Defence geotechnical response lead Grant Maxwell explained it was an old, known landslide that had been exacerbated by the heavy rain.

Following her visit, Ardern said after seeing the scale of the damage and what it had done to people's homes “it is devastating”.

“You can't imagine coming back after being evacuated in a hurry, fearing probably for your own family's safety and then coming back and seeing for the first time what's happened to your home and all of your worldly belongings, it's very hard to imagine what that would feel like.”

However, Ardern said she was constantly reminded of the “sense of community spirit in places like this region”.

“Everyone looking to support one another, that is what will help get us through but so will good, consistent information,” she said. “Everyone needs to know as much as they can, even when that information may change because of weather events.”

Nelson MP Rachel Boyack said it was important for Ardern and other key ministers, such as Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty, “to be here and actually see what we're seeing”.

It was also important for them to see the support on the ground that the Government could provide. As well as the mayoral fund, the Government could help by liaising via the National Emergency Management Agency to make sure “the agencies are putting in the appropriate resources”.

With events like the weather bomb, the rain “dies away”.

“It's easy to think: 'Oh look, it's all OK now' but actually the situation, particularly with the landslips, is very serious and there's the potential of more rain,” Boyack said.

Care needed to be taken “over the next days and weeks” because more rain was predicted, and the land was very soft.

“Some of those landslips could come down again,” she said. “Some areas where there's been the potential for a slip could become a slip.”