The slippery, clinging, stinky silt remains knee-deep in some Hawke’s Bay valleys, forestry slash is still strewn across river beds and along beaches, and lives are in chaos, with existence balancing on a knife-edge.
The time which has elapsed since the cyclone’s back edge disappeared over the Pacific Ocean horizon is barely even a blink of the eye in recovery terms.
The same can be said for the period since both the hugely damaging Auckland floods at the end of January and the unwelcome reminder just last week of how easily our largest city can be swamped by torrential downpours.
It doesn’t require much expertise to look at images and videos of the flood damage and understand the massive clean-up job that lies ahead for residents, recovery agencies and the government.
It also comes as no surprise that the Auckland Anniversary Day floods and Gabrielle combined were the most expensive weather catastrophe in our history.
The final damage bill is estimated to reach somewhere between $9 billion and $14.5 billion, making it the country’s second-most damaging natural disaster after the 2010-11 Canterbury earthquakes, which cost towards $50 billion.
So, it came as very welcome news this week that the Government announced a pre-Budget $1 billion cyclone and flood-relief package. This comes on top of about $890 million already pledged for business support and infrastructure repair.
The billion-dollar bundle of support forms part of the ever-increasing quantity of policies being released ahead of Budget days. In this instance especially, time is of the essence, and it is important that this money be available as soon as possible for struggling communities and businesses.
The mental health of people throughout the region has rightly been recognised in the package. However, the $35 million announced for mental health support and to boost the work of GPs and health workers will not go far and should have been probably three times that amount.
More than 12 years after the earthquakes, mental health is still a major issue in Canterbury. The impact of mental illness on the ability of people to cope and carry on, and on many aspects of everyday life, is still keenly felt.
Back up north, another $100 million-plus government package released earlier this month to aid with the removal and disposal of silt from land should be a big help, especially for farmers, orchardists and growers.
In terms of mitigation to help ease the impacts of the next storm, the latest tranche of support has allocated $100 million towards flood protection measures.
That contrasts with a poor effort by the Government to protect vulnerable Westport and Buller residents from future floods.
Coasters will be disappointed that just $22.9 million has been granted to help strengthen flood protection around the Buller River, which inundated Westport in July 2021 and February 2022, wrecking about a quarter of all homes in the town and forcing thousands of people to evacuate.
While the disaster was not on the scale of Cyclone Gabrielle, it’s not a competition. The disruption from those floods means those who live in Westport and surrounds deserve far better than what the Government has given them.
The recovery in parts of Hawke’s Bay will take many years and run into decades. Parts of the region will never be the same again after Gabrielle.
A major effort is required now to bolster lives and communities, and build up the local economy to ensure that farms and businesses devastated this past summer can earn again for the region and the country next summer.
