Photos of Franz hotel reveal costly flood damage

Wednesday, 30 March 2016

Photographs from inside Franz Josef's Mueller hotel show millions of dollars worth of flooding damage. 

Almost 200 people had to be evacuated when the Waiho River overflowed on March 23, carving a new path through the Mueller Hotel near Franz Josef. A preschool, school, holiday park and lodge were evacuated, but the flooding did not reach those areas. 

As the water subsided the hotel has been left with a thick layer of rock, gravel and silt throughout the ground floor and carpark. 

Rock from the river now sits on the lawn at the back of the hotel. The restaurant and reception areas are covered in silt and mud. Furniture is piled up after being tossed around by the water. 

 Scenic Circle Group managing director Brendan Taylor said insurance assessors had been through the hotel and they said it was the worst damage they had seen. 

'We'll be talking in the millions,' he said. 

'The whole ground floor took a major hit from the river. There are layers of silt and gravel right through, the river blew out all the front windows.'

He was waiting for information from the engineers and insurance assessors before making any decisions on the hotel's future. 

'We are not going to reinstate the hotel if it endangers our guests or our staff,' he said. 

The Scenic Group bought the hotel about 26 years ago and had helped pay for a stop bank which was breached on Wednesday, he said. 

A representative from the hotel attended a meeting of the Franz Josef Working Group on Wednesday.

Westland Mayor Mike Havill said the meeting was 'positive'. 

'There will be emergency work starting to reinstate the bank to offer some protection to the area north of Franz Josef including the hotel, the school, the lodge and the holiday park. A longer term plan will be developed in another month or six weeks which will involve looking at the river, the height of the stop banks and level of protection needed,' he said. 

The 'beneficiaries' of the work would pay for the emergency repair of the stop bank, including Scenic Circle Group and the Westland District Council. 

The Franz Josef community would be consulted on the longer term plan, he said. 

'There is rain forecast for the weekend so we need to begin immediately to offer some level of protection. There's quite serious forces of nature at play and everyone is doing their best. We don't have a magic wand but we will do our best with the resources we have,' he said. 

The New Zealand Transport Agency had already used stock-piled rock to reinforce the bank along the State Highway.