‘Complete rebuild’ for some Tasman properties after second wave of flood damage
Saturday, 12 July 2025
Some Tasman residents and farms will be facing a complete rebuild after being hit by floodwaters for the second time in two weeks, the mayor says.
The district woke to sunshine on Saturday, but while the weather was a welcome respite for the rain-weary region, it’s also a chance to assess the latest round of damage after being struck by heavy rain on Friday for the third week in a row, and two weeks after a deluge caused widespread floods.
Thousands of people spent the night without power and nearly 100 were put up in motels after evacuating their homes.
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RNZ has reported that unoccupied caravans at Kaiteriteri’s Bethany Park “had floated a distance” after a dam burst about 6.30pm on Friday and that overnight part of the roof on Nelson’s Harvey Norman store was lifted by strong winds.
People also had to be rescued from vehicles after becoming trapped in flood waters.
By Saturday morning NZ Transport Authority Waka Kotahi advised some state highway routes had reopened.
The closure of State Highway 60 has been reduced, the highway is open between Richmond and Riwaka and between Upper Tākaka and Collingwood, however the highway is now closed between Riwaka and Upper Tākaka. SH6 Rocks Rd remains closed.
State Highway 63 fully reopened on Saturday afternoon, with restrictions, between Renwick and Kawatiri Junction
The closures mean there is no direct access to the West Coast from Nelson or Blenheim.
Weather damage can be expected on reopened sections and drivers are urged to avoid non-essential travel as work to restore and repair roads across the region continues.
Power had restored to most residents across Motueka and Golden Bay but there are still 3200 people without power in pockets spread through other areas.
Residents in Kaiteriteri were without water, but by the afternoon the water main had been restored, Nelson Tasman Civil Defence group controller Alec Louverdis said.
There were still some isolated communities cut off from help, Louverdis said.
“We are reaching out to them through potentially helicopters in terms of dropping food off. We'll wait for the waters to recede,” he said.
More rain and wind were forecast between Sunday and Wednesday next week, but he said the weather was not expected to cause further significant damage.
The focus now was on restoring power and improving cell phone coverage, which he said remained intermittent.
On Saturday morning Tasman mayor Tim King said the weather was “bloody beautiful”, but there was a lot of damage to be assessed.
Some of the river catchments recorded more water than the June 27 floods, and while the river levels had fallen as quickly as they’d come up “the trail of destruction I suspect will be significant again”, he said.
Many of the worst hit locations were areas that were badly impacted in the previous floods, which meant there would be cumulative damage, he said.
Several people had to be rescued from cars, but he was not aware of any injuries, he said.
At a press conference that afternoon, he said it was clear that many areas had been devastated, and it would be a long recovery.
“There is a lot more damage. Some of the areas that were badly impacted last time … have been absolutely devastated this time, so what was a clean-up job is now going to be a complete rebuild.”
A aerial survey had shown the level of destruction over and above two weeks ago, with the scale of downed trees this time a big difference.
“The forestry is quite significantly impacted.”
A tree came down onto power lines next to Kirsten Lineham's property on Maisey Rd, Lower Redwood Valley.
“About 4pm the power went out. Then about 7pm we heard a couple of massive crashes and thought yep, that's trees going down.'
One tree fell onto a power line running along the road past their property, breaking it and blocking the road. They expected the road to be cleared on Saturday and were unsure about when the power would be back on, but were using a generator in the meantime.
The bottom of the property was “inundated with water” when she got home from Nelson early on Friday afternoon, but the house is on a hill.
“We know that we're OK here, it was more thinking about other family that we've got out Riwkaka and Kaiteriteri … we're used to being isolated so we have a good network of neighbours that we can call on if needed.”
They had lived there for 10 years, she said.
“This was probably the most major storm we've come across. We had the tornado go through a few years back, which hit the house back there really hard.”
National Federated Farmers president Wayne Langford lives on Long Plain Rd in Tākaka, and said the road had been washed out by floodwaters.
“The tar seal’s gone and the culvert’s been moved around and it looks like some of the fibre cables been moved as well.”
They had received about 260mm of rain, with the worst part being about 6pm last night when they got about 30mm and the power went out, he said.
“That’s when the damage really started happening.”