West Coast emergency preparations in full swing as forecasted deluge descends
Marcus Shenker thought he would spend his birthday fishing – instead, he spent it moving valuables into his roof attic in preparation for his already-damaged Westport home to flood again.
A state of emergency in the Buller District was declared on Wednesday, and MetService has issued heavy rain warnings for Buller and Westland which last until Friday.
The red warning is the highest of MetService’s alerts, reserved for the most extreme storms. Forecasters have warned this rain could be worse than the storm that caused a devastating flood in Westport last July.
Shenker, a retired geofield assistant, had planned to spend his 66th birthday fishing, taking a walk on the beach, and a roast dinner.
Instead, he was storing valuables in the roof of his home, which is still damaged from last year's flood.
Carpet is missing, as are proper internal walls, while the bathtub is outside. He is still dealing with insurers from the previous flood.
Wednesday’s rainfall was not as bad as last year’s, he said.
After the July flood, Shenker lived in temporary accommodation for two months after water about waist-deep went through his home.
His home was also flooded in 2018, during Cyclone Fehi.
“These are all like once-in-a-100-year floods that are happening now like every six months.”
As of 7pm on Wednesday, 99mm of rain had fallen in Westport, while 48.6mm fell in Hokitika.
Westport’s O’Conor Memorial Rest Home, near the Buller River, evacuated 68 residents as a precaution.
Buller Health's Foote Ward also closed, while Buller Medical was preparing to provide care from an alternative location.
St John set up a temporary health centre at Carters Beach, near Westport, in the evening.
Four New Zealand Defence Force trucks and one support vehicle with 10 army personnel arrived in Greymouth on Wednesday evening. An NH90 helicopter would also fly south to help, a spokesperson said.
Buller mayor Jamie Cleine urged people to prepare getaway bags ahead of potential evacuations on Thursday.
Many spent Wednesday preparing sandbags. Volunteers filled them in the car park of Westport’s recreation centre.
Richard Sanders, 45, a chef, said helping fill sandbags was a distraction from thinking about his own house, which was still not fully repaired from the July floods,
Jan Woodcock, 67, a community health support worker, said the weather event left her with a feeling of "here we go again".
"We didn't get flooded last time, but the water is now lapping the footpath [outside my home]," she said.
Further south, power went out at Franz Josef and Fox Glacier at 11am on Wednesday when a tree hit lines at Lake Mapourika. Westpower said power was restored at 3.25pm.
Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency said all West Coasts highways were still open on Wednesday evening, except SH6 between Fox Glacier and Makaroa, which was closed due to surface flooding.
NZTA West Coast maintenance contract manager Moira Whinham said overall there had only been minor slips, which were cleared easily.
“Our teams will continue to monitor key rivers and bridge approaches, with night patrols as needed," she said.
MetService meteorologist Lewis Ferris said residents should prepare for a possible “long-running” event, which could extend into the weekend.
There were parallels with last year's flooding and residents should again prepare for similar impacts, he said.
“There's going to be flooding, there's going to be slips, disruptions to roading networks, possibly even power and telecommunications.”
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Horse rider pleads for support to keep them safe on roads
A nationwide campaign to have horse-riders officially recognised as vulnerable road users has been offered supported by the West Coast’s Regional Transport committee.
The committee heard a presentation this month from equestrian safety advocate Julia McLean, who recently took a petition to Parliament on behalf of riding associations across the country.
The petition, signed by close to 9000 people, asks the government to recognise the vulnerability of horse riders in transport legislation.
“Currently we sit in the ‘other road user’ category and that gives no benefits whatsoever and most critically we are not included in education or road safety-messaging,” McLean said.
Horse-riders were continually dealing with reckless and dangerous behaviour by motorists, she told the committee.
“We get reports from our rider groups of horses being killed: there was one in Reefton, and another in Ruatoki; just two weeks ago a horse was hit and killed by a truck and the rider was taken to hospital."
Riders were also put at risk by aggressive drivers tooting their horns, winding down their windows and shouting, and passing at speed and too closely, she told the committee.
But unlike accidents involving pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users, such incidents involving horses were not captured in the statistics.
When she had asked NZTA for data, said said all it could tell her was that it had issued 13 infringements in 13 years, for failing to take care around a ridden animal or stock.
“When someone comes so close they touch your stirrup, or they hoot their horn as they go past ... it’s the abuse - it’s everywhere."
In a case down south, a truck driver refused to slow down despite hand signals and the rider fell off just in front of him, she said.
She had asked the road safety director for NZ Police to look at providing a ‘tick-box’ for horse-riders in incident reports, Ms McLean said.
“It’s a small, low-cost measure that would allow us to have some proper data, an informed understanding of what’s happening out there on the roads, and in turn some targeted road safety messaging.”
She was motivated to become a safety advocate by her own experience at the age of 25, when she fractured her skull in a near-fatal riding accident on a Kaiapoi road.
“I lost all memory of my childhood; my sense of taste and smell is gone forever. I was in a coma for week, I lost my career and it’s taken me 16 years to fully recover,” she told LDR.
Her accident had not been caused by a car: her horse had shied and thrown her when a piece of paper on the verge moved suddenly in the wind.
But the incident was a grim reminder of what could happen if a horse were startled, she said.
The UK and Australia had recently changed their road codes to give drivers explicit instructions on passing horses.
“It needs to be explicit. We can’t assume people just get it anymore. Common sense is not a thing. We actually have to tell people what we require, to pass a horse wide and slow - wide is two metres.”
A total of 37 organisations were now endorsing her campaign, including police, trucking companies, pony clubs and 10 other regional councils, McLean told the committee.
Transport Committee chairperson Peter Ewen was supportive of Ms McLeans safety campaign.
“In rural New Zealand we have a lot of narrow roads, and we do have riders on them – I would like to think that courtesy is given to those riders."
Regional council chairperson Peter Haddock said he sympathised with the cause but had reservations about riders on state highways.
“I would encourage it on low volume council roads but would struggle to support riding on highways where you’ve got traffic following closely behind.
“It’s difficult to find you suddenly have a horse in front of you and slowly pass it and go from 100kphs to 10kphs. It’s a dangerous situation."
McLean said horse riders did not want to ride on highways, and accidents were happening on 50kph local roads.
She appealed to West Coast mayors and chairs present to consider horse riders when they built shared pathways like cycle trails.
“We don’t need a hard surface, just a bit of dirt or grass at the side.”
The Transport Committee agreed to draft a letter to the national transport authorities, endorsing McLean’s safety campaign but stating its reservations about horses on highways.
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