Anthony Phelps/Stuff
Marlborough Mayor John Legget, left, speaking with Minister of Transport Michael Wood and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at RNZAF Base Woodbourne on Thursday.
A total of 88 houses in Marlborough have been red or yellow stickered because of damage from the severe rain event that struck the region.
Marlborough Mayor John Leggett joined Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty and Minister of Transport Michael Wood at Base Woodbourne on Thursday, to discuss flood damage in Marlborough, following the four-day deluge of the region.
A Marlborough District Council spokesperson said on Friday 30 homes had been red-stickered, which meant they were unsafe to enter.
The remaining 58 had been given a yellow placard, which meant there had been some damage done to the property, the spokesperson said.
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Stuff
Co-owner of Te Mahia Lodge Trevor Hook said the property had been yellow stickered, along with three others in Te Mahia Bay.
“While rapid assessments have been carried out, more detailed assessments are required,” the spokesperson said.
The affected houses were located across the region, including in several areas within the Marlborough Sounds, such as Queen Charlotte Sound, Kenepuru Sound and D’Urville Island. Houses in Waihopai Valley, Northbank and Waikakaho and other areas had also been stickered.
Te Mahia Bay Resort co-owner Tevor Hook confirmed the property had been yellow-stickered, after saying on Thursday he didn’t know when they were going to reopen.
Three other properties in Te Mahia Bay had also been given a yellow sticker, Hook said.
“In our situation, the buildings were fine, but there was a slump in the Kenepuru Rd at the top,” he said.
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Kenepuru Road was badly damaged following the severe weather in Marlborough last month.
There was uncertainty surrounding flood affected Marlborough Sounds roads, after Ardern said at Base Woodbourne on Thursday that “decisions have not yet been made” on whether certain roads would return to the state they were prior to being damaged.”
Leggett said “it’s too early to be having that conversation quite along those lines”.
“Obviously the work that we’re doing at the moment is to get a really clear assessment of the damage out there, and to get an understanding of what the repair costs will be,” Leggett said.
“It may be that we’ve got to look for other ways of getting people into the Marlborough Sounds, and that’s a conversation we’ll have in the fullness of time”.
On Friday, Marlborough principal rural fire officer Richard McNamara said there would have to be a review of how emergency and other services supplied communities in the Marlborough Sounds.
“Given the fact that the roads just haven’t been damaged, they’ve been completely destroyed in places, and a lot of the millions of dollars of work that went in post the July 2021 floods is now sitting at the bottom of the Sounds,” he said.
