Shovel-ready Canterbury fire crews get a warm welcome in Nelson

Monday, 22 August 2022

FENZ volunteers work to clear the mud and silt from a Nile St property.

Volunteer crews from Canterbury have added to the cleanup effort in Nelson.

When Stuff visited Nile St on Monday afternoon, fire crews were blasting away the silty mud that had piled up in driveways and along the road.

A few hours earlier, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had visited the street, calling the damage to the wider region “devastating”.

Paul Manson, from Fire and Emergency New Zealand in Timaru, has responded to similar floods around the country. Nelson was “right up there”, Manson said.

Sodden furniture and carpets line Nile St as the community launches into clean-up mode.

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Residents and FENZ are working to clear driveways and properties of the silty mud that piled up when the Maitai River broke its banks.

“It’s hit a specific area really hard,” he said.

The street looked markedly different from Sunday, when driveways on the north side of the street were clogged with silt, trapping cars and sucking gumboots into deep mud.

Volunteer firefighter Ces Pacey from Amberly said they were pitching in with whatever the community needed.

“Shovelling mud, helping take stuff out of houses, filling skips, trying and make it more liveable.”

It was hard watching people take stock of the damage, Pacey said. “People are heartbroken, they’ve lost all their stuff.”

Elaine Brake said the community had welcomed her and other volunteers with gratitude.

“We went for breakfast this morning, there were three crews. We went to pay and someone had paid for our breakfast. We didn’t even know who it was to thank them.”

There had been deliveries of slices, muffins and a large bucket of butter chicken from Little India owner Mani Rai, Brake said.

“Someone biked past with a bag of homemade cookies, and said, ‘here’s smoko’, then biked off, we never had a chance to say thank you.”