Gisborne and East Cape deserved a New Year break. It wasn't to be
Wednesday, 11 January 2023
There is a sense of grim déjà vu in Tairāwhiti Gisborne and the road that winds north around the East Cape through remote towns like Tolaga Bay, Tokomaru Bay, and Ruatōria.
Floods, floods, and more floods through 2022 meant the small towns – and Gisborne – were often in the news for reasons they would rather not be.
And as 2023 barely had its feet under the desk, Cyclone Hale formed in the tropics and headed south. The region was, once again, in the firing line.
State Highway 35, which hugs the East Cape, adopted a 'proceed at your own risk' basis with 2wd cars getting stuck while.
**READ MORE:
* South Island enjoys more sunshine while North braces for Cyclone Hale
* Cyclone Hale: Auckland set to be hit, more areas brace for worst of storm set to last days
* Government puts up $175,000 for 'considerable' East Coast flood damage
**
North of Tolaga Bay, the cyclone left wrecked crops and submerged paddocks in its wake.
But through it all, there have been the incredible stories of communities coming together – the volunteer firefighters who formed a human chain on Monday night to save two grandparents and a grandchild stuck in swollen waters near Ruatōria, the locals who set up a kitchen in a rugby club to feed contractors fixing a crippled bridge, or the ones who rode two inflatable boats up a flooded SH35 to rescue stranded road workers.
The atmospheric conditions have just lined up
A confluence of global conditions have lined up to create the wet that had hammered the region for the past year, MetService meteorologist James Millward said.
On one hand – the most crucial – is that we are sitting amid the longest La Niña period since records began around the year 1900. We were still in La Niña now but it showed signs of easing, after three long years, by winter.
This created high pressure near the Chatham Islands and a northeasterly wind driving moisture from the tropics – towards the East Cape particularly.
“Particularly, the last year has been really evident,” he said.
Adding to that, the sea temperature around the Coral Sea was above normal, adding more moisture into the atmosphere and towards Aotearoa.
Added to that was a “negative Indian Ocean Dipole” – effectively a tipping of the balance of the temperature in the Indian Ocean. While that had now ended, it affected Australia with more flooding there and onto New Zealand. “The atmospheric conditions have just lined up,” Millward said.
Short-lived luck
It was almost exactly one year ago – January 14, 2022 – that MetService was warning Gisborne and East Cape to be prepared for heavy rain and swells as Tropical Cyclone Cody passed New Zealand.
The region – and all of New Zealand – feared better from Cody than they would a year later, with Cyclone Hale. The luck would be short-lived.
By early-February, a deluge fell in the region. Rei Kohere, who grew up and has spent most of his life near Rangiata, said it was the worst since the 1954 floods.
Close to 260mm of rain fell over 24 hours. “It was pretty intense,” he said.
A theme that would define 2022 was set: People isolated, roads damaged or washed away, slips, then, a big clean-up operation.
Everything thrown at us
The next month: “We've had everything thrown at us this year,” Omi Badsar, managing director of grower Coxco, said in late-March after more than 400mm of rain fell in the region in two days, and 530mm at Te Puia, near Tolaga Bay.
”Weather events, labour shortage, Covid-19, shipping delays and now heavy rain.”
The system saw SH2 and SH38 closed while people were told to stay out of flood water, which could be contaminated or contain dangerous debris.
At Mangatuna just north of Tolaga Bay, seven members of the Gisborne Surf lifesaving emergency callout squad were on their way to rescue road workers stranded by floodwaters. When SH35 turned to a lake, they got into inflatable boats and carried out the rescue.
Exceeded one-in-100-year levels
Within days, the wet was back: A state of emergency was declared as more rain fell, resulting in dozens of evacuated residents, and communities cut off.
Tairāwhiti Civil Defence said the week’s rainfall “exceeded the one-in-100-year levels” – but with climate change affecting the severity and frequency of our weather patterns, this measure might be fast becoming outdated.
A crucial bridge of SH35 at Tokomaru Bay was washed out, leaving a 16m gap in the road. It was repaired and open for light vehicles in less than a fortnight.
'I asked [Transport Minister Michael Wood] how they managed to make such a significant repair and so far ahead of schedule,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.
“He said a lot was down to the local team.”
Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz said it was repaired 11 days ahead of schedule, led by local contractor Voss Blackbee.
“That little community just worked non-stop, around-the- clock,” she said.
“Locals set up a kitchen in the local rugby club to feed the workers.”
No way they can handle this wind
There was a fortnight’s break before the remnants of Cyclone Fili came and wreaked havoc in mid-April.
'The pines are snapping like twigs,” said Ruatoria resident Graeme Atkins, who had lived in the area for more than 30 years.
”It's not just pines, either. I've just been for a drive, and there are plenty of trees blown over. A good dozen, I'd say. Some probably 100- to 200-year-old trees.
'There's just no way they can handle this wind when the ground is still so sodden,” Atkins said.
Again, communities were isolated, and roads were closed. In Gisborne, the wastewater system strained under the amount of rainwater draining from residential properties and, to prevent sewage backing up and flowing on to roads and properties, the council opened an emergency sewer valve.
People were warned off swimming as a result.
So, those who woke up around the East Cape, the first place to see the new day, on January 1, 2023 probably thought they deserved a break.
They did.
They didn’t get it.