‘Months if not years’ and tens of millions to recover from devastating floods

Monday, 30 June 2025

Recovering from Tasman’s flooding event on Friday will take months, if not years, and the cost is likely to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

The heavy rain clouds may have passed, but the region continues to count the cost of the floods, and brace itself for yet more rain to come.

With ground already sodden and rivers running high, authorities are gearing up for the worst case scenario while grappling with the cleanup and reopening roads.

The MetService severe weather outlook reports with moderate confidence rainfall amounts would reach warning criteria in the northwest of Tasman on Thursday, with low confidence for the remainder of the region.

“Absolutely the last thing anybody needs is more rain,” Tasman mayor Tim King said.

“Even the lower end of that forecast has the potential to be at the most very annoying, and certainly the upper end has the potential to put us back into another very difficult situation.”

West Coast Tasman MP Maureen Pugh said while the extent of the damage from the recent flooding was still being assessed, full recovery for some badly-affected businesses, orchards and farms could take months, if not years.

At present, King said the focus was on assessing damage and repairs, focusing on the key sites where further rain could create more damage, and “patching those up” as best as possible before Thursday.

Key risk locations included Upper Motueka, Motupiko, Tapawera and Wai-iti.

On public land the biggest damage was on bridges, culverts, roads, and rivers, while on private property, there was a “huge” amount of farmland and orchard lands with massive damage.

Paddocks had effectively turned into river beds, and orchards were “just a big tangle of debris and flood damage”, destruction King described as “pretty severe”.

Areas affected by the flooding include south of Wakefield, up to Tapawera and its southern surrounds,Motueka Valley, and Upper and Lower Moutere.

On Monday morning, the council sent drones up the Motueka River as part of its ongoing needs assessment survey.

A lot of the damage was on farms, and wasn’t easily seen from the road, King said.

While the cost of the flooding was unknown at this stage, it was likely to be in the “tens of millions of dollars”, and the event would put pressure on the council's budgets.

Repairing roading, culverts, and bridges would be a significant task on its own, while there was substantial damage in the river system in many locations, such as Motueka and Motupiko as well as other smaller waterways.

Nelson Tasman Civil Defence public information manager Chris Choat said there were three yellow stickered properties at this point.

The state of emergency remained in place, and 25 local roads are still closed.

While some around the region have directed criticism towards local authorities because of river management practices, King said he didn’t believe one could ever be confident that a river system was in a position where it couldn’t be overwhelmed by nature.

“Events of this scale are going to overwhelm pretty much whatever we do.

“It's a big region with a massive number of river systems and there's never enough money to do what everyone wants, so that's a real battle.”

In terms of the incoming weather, King urged residents to prepare for the worst, and hope for the best.

“Keep a really clear eye out, look at the information that's provided, follow the weather forecast and have a bit of a plan for how Thursday and Friday might pan out if the worst forecast comes to pass.”

AMI, State and NZI executive general manager claims Stephannie Ferris said due to the weather event, so far 131 claims had been lodged in Tasman, while eight claims had been sent in from Nelson, and 19 claims were lodged from Marlborough.

The country’s largest general insurer, IAG, said in a statement that as of 9am Monday AMI, State and NZI had received more than 373 claims nationally from this weather event.

Teams were being sent to the affected areas, as well as Tasman District Council building inspectors to gain a fuller assessment of the damage, while river courses were being reconstructed where possible.

“The extent of the damage is significant. There could be some places where we won't get to for some days, and that's the purpose of those drones, to reinforce the information that we've got already, so we can work out a plan of action as we move into recovery.”

At the Motueka Recreation Centre, an emergency assistance and information centre had been set up, and several public meetings were in the process of being finalised.

Choat reminded the public to treat all flood waters as contaminated.

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi said access had been restored on State Highway 63.

However, closures remained in place as contractors worked to repair damage to roads and infrastructure.

Roads still closed include State Highway 6 from Kawatiri to Kohatu, as well as State Highway 6 Rocks Rd between Bisley Ave and Richardson Rd.

In an update on Monday afternoon, the agency said both lanes on the road would be open from 6pm.

However, the cycle lanes would be closed due to the placement of water filled barriers as a safety zone.

Meanwhile, as the floodwaters recede in Tapawera, Tapawera’s chief fire officer Dean Millar said it would take weeks to fully understand the extent of the damage. He praised the swift work of contractors to reconnect the town.

“The roading crews have been bloody unbelievable,” he said. “They’ve just worked all weekend and the fact that we can actually get back to Nelson now is quite incredible.”

Millar credited contractors who “worked together clearing slips, fixing bridges, and repairing stopbanks.”

Tapawera had been cut off for several days during the storm, with access roads underwater or damaged.

In a post on social media, Nelson Tasman Civil Defence advised that cellular towers were still patchy in Wakefield, Murchison and St Arnaud, and that Starlink units had been sent to these communities.

The Tasman Harbourmaster had identified a lot of debris around the coast and was encouraging people to not clear or salvage the debris, and not to take boats out, the post said.