Rebuilding and accepting loss. But in good Southland spirit, they have moved forwards.
Gunn’s Camp in the Hollyford Valley, owned and operated by the Hollyford Museum Charitable Trust, was a hot spot for workers, trampers and school campers.
When the floods hit, they hit hard — their force prompting the closure of the camp forever.
Out of about 14 buildings, only four were left unscathed.
Milford Community Trust chairman Ebel Kremer was one of those weighing up the damage.
Following his first helicopter trip into the camp, he described the scenes as "devastating".
A year on, the trust is still working with insurers to tie up loose ends.
"The museum, the manager’s quarters, the workshops ... the wastewater and the drinking water, it was all totally destroyed."
Water and mud swept through the site.
The following week, he and other emergency responders took several flights and a four-wheel drive in to recover artefacts from the museum and shop.
Despite being able to recover most of the items, there was no doubt about it — the camp was unsalvageable.
Due to its location and the likelihood of another flood, as well as the legislative requirements and approvals needed, it would not be worth rebuilding, Mr Kremer said.
"Gunn’s Camp is part of the past now."
When the floods struck in Gore, they flowed from the Waikaka River and over a small section of the stopbank at the Gore Transfer Station.
Gore Automotive Services owner Murray Harris was on his way to Dunedin for an Elton John concert when staff called him to say he needed to turn around.
His East Gore business in Ontario St was swimming in water.
When he arrived, emergency services had blocked off access to the street and there was no way in.
"I looked down the street from the train tracks and could see a car totally submerged in water."
Luckily, some of his staff had been working up until they were told to leave, and managed to save computers and hoist up a couple of classic cars on site.
When Mr Harris was able to return a couple of days later, the wreckage was tough to stomach.
"It was a disaster area.
"Everything we had was at table level and the water had reached that height and taken it out."
Layers of silt and used oil covered the entire workshop, and muddy water floated materials.
Six customers’ cars were unable to be saved.
While the clean-up was enormous, Environment Southland (ES), friends, family, staff and customers all lent a helping hand.
A successful application to the mayoral relief fund meant Mr Harris got $5000 to go towards costs not covered by his insurer.
He was only insured up to $300,000, a process he described as "an absolute battle".
He also applied for and was successful in getting support from the mayoral relief fund.
It took 10 months for the assessor to sign off the claim.
He spoke bluntly and said that while the process was difficult, it was worth it and his business now benefited from new facilities.
He believed the flooding on the street was "totally preventable", and he was anxious about what would happen next time it happened.
He wrote to ES in November asking why a section of the stopbank at the Gore Transfer Station was allegedly modified about 2005.
He also asked why a pump installed in the street to drain water was not being used.
Catchment operations manager Paddy Hayne responded and placed the blame with the Gore District Council (GDC).
He said ES was in contact with council staff to remediate the problem at the transfer station and get assurance from them it would be considered "a matter of urgency".
He did not know why the council was not using the pump.
GDC roading asset manager Peter Standring said the transfer station was developed in 2005, but he did not know if the levels of the site were altered at the time or if it was an existing low point.
"There has not been a flood to the same capacity since the new site was developed. It has now been highlighted as a clear gap in our river defences.
"Since early discussions with the local residents, council has commissioned surveys of the area and had talks with Environment Southland about possible solutions."
The discussion was ongoing.
However, 12 months on from the flood, nothing had been done, Mr Harris said.
"I couldn’t go through that again.
"Something needs to happen."
Toronto St business owner David Ugy agreed.
He claimed flooding was directly linked to the stopbank modification, which caused water to flow through a gap about 12m long at the entrance to the transfer station.
"The stopbank should go from the kiosk to Riches Bank but was modified to make it easier to get the large rubbish skips out."
Gordon Haugh, a resident in Toronto St, was one of those who contacted council to warn staff of the increasing amount of water flowing through.
While they seemed responsive on the phone about 1pm, it was not until about 5pm he saw council workers on site, he said.
"I watched them just turn around. I don’t think they did anything. They told me on the phone there was just a lot going on."
When nothing had been done to stop the flow, Mr Ugy built a dam using concrete power poles.
Despite the threat of being arrested, he was confident the whole street would have flooded if it was not for the makeshift dam.
Police did not charge him.
"It went from being a river to a gutter stream after I put that up."
Flooding response
As the water continued to rise, a state of emergency was declared in Fiordland.
The decision to extend this to Southland followed and allowed for more resources and support from other organisations to manage the clean-up.
Helen and Jock Cummings’ 103ha dairy farm in Wyndham was 80% underwater.
Fences were written off, paddocks soaked and almost all their stock feed and crops lost.
When the seven-week clean-up started, more than 50 friends, family and community members chipped in to help.
"It was the most humbling thing I’ve ever seen," Mrs Cummings said.
Between her and her one staff member, they did 780 hours of work.
The biggest cost was repairing fencing and replacing baleage, which thankfully, was covered by insurance.
However, the damage to the paddocks and mains supply was not.
She waited seven days for a pump to get rid of the water.
"By that point, the grass had died and it all had to be resown."
While the pair had picked themselves up, they were still living with the consequences of the flood — a few paddocks were "really rough" and cows would not eat certain areas of grass due to the build-up of sand underneath.
Despite it all, she was incredibly grateful for her insurers, who made the process as smooth as possible.
She hoped not to experience a flood of that magnitude ever again.
Emergency Management Southland (EMS) acting manager Craig Sinclair was one of seven co-ordinaters working on the flood response.
"If we can see the potential for EMS to get overwhelmed, that’s when we call for an emergency."
The biggest consequences of the floods were loss of winter stock feed, drenched paddocks which needed to be resown, and widespread damage to fences.
Farming close to a river, specifically for Mataura residents, was especially tough, Mr Sinclair said.
"You have to have enough time to shift stock. I believe farmers did have enough notice. thankfully. so there wasn’t a huge amount of loss there.
However, once the feed was recovered, it was "no good", and vets were urging farmers not to use damaged material.
On the upside, there was not a huge demand for winter feed last season, he said.
EMS was still having talks about its processes for flood response.
"We have 27 community groups we talk to on a regular basis and we’re always modifying our processes, it’s always ongoing."
With many Southlanders living close to the river and the increasing threat of climate change, he expected similar events to keep occurring.
Southland Federated Farmers vice-president Bernadette Hunt said the organisation’s role, alongside the Southland Rural Support Trust, was to provide immediate support to get farmers up and running again.
This included the Farmy Army response — whereby volunteers went on to damaged farms to clear debris and rubbish off fences.
A service was also established to help move dairy farm herds to "foster farms” to be fed and milked while dairy sheds and farms were out of action.
Mrs Hunt said most rural damage was not covered, or only partially covered, by insurance.
Gravel caused a lot of damage, and in some cases, lignite washed out of the river and was dumped on to pastures.
Bulldozers were required for some properties, while other areas of pasture were permanently lost.
Rather than being owned by Environment Southland, some significantly damaged floodbanks were owned and managed by landowners.
This meant they had to repair them urgently themselves, and in some cases, people were unaware of the ownership issue before the floods hit, she said.
While some farmers were still recovering from the financial impact, most made new plans with their banks and just "got on with it".
The money
However, to do that they needed money.
Insurance Council of New Zealand (ICNZ) chief executive Tim Grafton confirmed claims totalled nearly $30million — just for Southland.
Commercial claims made up about $20million of that, while house and contents made up about $8million; motoring about $1million; other, which included materials such as crops or fences, was about $170,000; and marine related damages accounted for about $60,000.
As far as ICNZ was aware, there were no outstanding claim payments.
If there were, the information would lie with insurance companies themselves.
While conversations with insurers continued, the Government stepped in.
Three national streams of funding were quickly introduced to assist in the recovery: $100,000 from the Ministry for Primary Industries, which went to the Southland Rural Support Trust; $100,000 from the Ministry of Defence for the Mayoral Relief Fund; and $500,000 from ACC to establish a recovery team, Taskforce Green.
That team was never formed and the money for it was not used.
Southland Mayoral Forum chairman Tracy Hicks said more than $150,000 of the Mayoral Relief Fund was spent, which included more than $50,000 left over from the 1984 floods fund.
Across the four councils in Southland, 60 applications were received for funds: 65% for individuals, 19% for businesses and 16% for farming related costs.
Regionally, 80% of applications were from the Mataura/Gore area and 20% were from Te Anau.
Members of the public gave just over $5000 to the cause.
Some of the most common uses for the money included replacing household items, lost revenue for businesses, vehicles and machinery, school resources and children’s car seats.
In July, Regional Economic Development Minister and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones awarded Southland $25million from the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) — part of the Government’s infrastructure funding for "shovel-ready" climate resilience and flood protection projects.
It will support three projects.
One will look at the stopbank infrastructure in Invercargill;
funding for the other two projects includes just over $10million towards upgrading and raising the Gore, Mataura and Wyndham stopbanks by 600mm, and $800,000 for erosion repairs on the Waiau River, following a flood in December.
This includes the stopbank which has been allegedly a problem in Gore.
Some of the work projects for the year 2020-21 include rock work on the Mataura stopbanks, and upgrading and extending the stopbank at Boundary Creek, upstream of the Mataura township.
Environment Southland chief executive Rob Phillips said most of the projects programmed for this year would be completed by the end of the financial year.
The rest of the shovel-ready projects would be completed within three years.
He was confident ES was well-equipped to deal with future severe weather events and the increasing risk posed by climate change.
"The fact that the floodwaters in Mataura largely stayed within the stopbanks during the 2020 floods is a testament to the importance of our flood protection infrastructure and the future-proofing that previous councils have undertaken."
A lot of resources went into ensuring staff and Southlanders were prepared, including having a team on standby to monitor rivers across the region.
"When they reach a certain trigger point, we notify Southlanders so they can take precautions if they live in affected areas."
Roading woes
It cost the Southland District Council (SDC) about $2million to repair its district roads, excluding Lower Hollyford Rd, which was $3.2million.
Of those, all but three had since been repaired; Lower Hollyford, Ellis and McLean Rds are expected to be completed by June 2021.
SDC strategic transport manager Hartley Hare confirmed 50 roads across Fiordland and Southland managed by the council were compromised by the floods.
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) contributed $400,000 towards the estimated cost for repairs to Lower Hollyford Rd.
Further works in Ellis Rd were on hold until Environment Southland completed flood protection work.
An NZTA spokesman said in general, state highways, with the exception of State Highway 94, stood up well to the flooding, despite the fact that at one point, the whole Southland region was cut off from the rest of the country.
The Te Anau/Milford Highway was the worst affected section of SH94 and was closed for 17 days.
The estimated cost to repair the six highways, for which NZTA was solely responsible, was $10.5million.
Depending on weather conditions, the project was expected to be completed by early next year.
Department of Conservation southern South Island operations director Aaron Fleming said $13.7million was allocated by the Government in Budget 2020 to repair tracks and huts in Milford Sound.
So far, the Milford and Routeburn Tracks were back up and running and the Howden Hut demolition project was completed.
The Hollyford Track had also reopened but was now categorised as a "backcountry adventurer" track to reflect a "lower-service standard".
The Chasm and small side-tracks off the Hollyford Rd, which head into the Humboldt and Darren Mountains, remained closed.
Structural and geotechnical assessments were required before any recovery work could be undertaken.
Evacuation
When the flooding swept through Gore and Mataura, several people were forced to leave their homes — some only for a few days, but one is still displaced a year on.
Initial support was there from the community including shelter and food and
Mataura Presbyterian Church minister John Ranstead said it had been hugely challenging.
Ministry of Social Development (MSD) Invercargill and Gore teams were on the ground at the Te Anau Library and Mataura Community Hall, working alongside other agencies to provide support after the flooding.
MSD southern regional director Sue Rissman said there were 146 requests for assistance, and $83,124 in grants were approved to help cover the cost of food, clothing and household goods.
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Temporary Accommodation Service (TAS) principal adviser Julia Shanahan said 16 registrations for housing were received following the floods.
Of those, seven were closed without placement — they either returned to their own home, were not eligible for the service or no longer required assistance.
Six households placed into TAS supply returned to their own homes after repairs, and two were placed into private rentals.
The average amount of time people stayed in temporary accommodation following the flooding was six months.
One household remained in TAS supply in Southland.
The determination and support evident in the tales of heartbreak highlight the resilience of a truly strong community. Southlanders rallied — but some questions remain as to whether the new flood protection measures go far enough. One year on, many recall feeling lucky, saddened by the material loss but relieved that no fatalities were recorded.
