Hundreds of insurance claims made after floods
Seventeen homes in Nelson and Tasman are currently uninhabitable after Friday's storm. IAG's executive general manager of claims, Stephannie Ferris, spoke to Charlotte Cook.
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RNZ News
30 minutes ago
- RNZ News
NZ cities are getting hotter: 5 things councils can do now to keep us cooler when summer comes
By Timothy Welch of Summer in Wellington. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Stand on any car park on a sunny day in February and the heat will radiate through your shoes. At 30C air temperature, that asphalt hits 50-55C - hot enough to cause second-degree burns to skin in seconds. Right now, in the northern hemisphere summer, 100 million Americans are dealing with 38C temperatures. Britain is preparing for hundreds of heat deaths . In New Zealand, of course, we're still lighting fires and complaining about the cold. But that gives us time to prepare for our own heatwaves. Open-air car parks that sit empty for 20 hours a day could become cooling infrastructure instead. Transport routes can become cooling corridors. Replace asphalt with trees, grass and permeable surfaces, and you can drop surface temperatures by 12C. It's not complicated. It's not even expensive. NIWA data shows New Zealand is already experiencing extreme temperatures five times more frequently than historical baselines. Wellington hit 30.3C and Hamilton 32.9C in January, both all-time records. Marine heatwaves are persisting around South Island coasts months longer than usual. Aucklanders will face 48 additional days above 25C annually by 2099, as summer temperatures increase by 3.6C. Auckland Council has already adopted the most severe warming scenario (3.8C) for infrastructure planning, acknowledging previous models underestimated the pace of change. Even Wellington's famously cool winds won't offset the estimated 79 percent increase in residential cooling energy demand by 2090, driven by hotter, longer summers and more extreme-heat days. A quarter of New Zealand's population will be over 65 by 2043, an age when heat regulation becomes harder and fixed incomes make cooling costs a real burden. Currently, 14 heat-related deaths occur annually among Auckland's over-65 population when temperatures exceed just 20C. As the mercury rises, our older population will be at a greater risk. While global average temperature increases of 1.5C might appear modest, the actual temperatures we experience in our cities is far more extreme. The built environment - all that concrete and asphalt - traps heat like an oven. But converting car parks back to green space can knock the temperature down dramatically. Research from Osaka Prefecture in Japan recorded surface temperature reductions of up to 14.7C when comparing asphalt to grass-covered parking during sunny summer conditions. Another study found temperature differences averaging 11.79C between asphalt and grass surfaces, with air temperature differences of 7-8C at human height. Trees are the heavy lifters here. Stand under a tree on a hot day, and it can feel 17C cooler than standing in the sun . Add rain gardens (shallow, planted areas designed to capture and filter stormwater) and ground cover for another 2-4C reduction. Layer these elements together, and you get cooling that works even on overcast days. Grassy and tree-covered car parks are just a starting point. Auckland's 7800 kilometres of roads could become the city's cooling system. Every bus lane, cycleway and walking path is an opportunity for green infrastructure. If we stop thinking of transport corridors as merely a way to get from one place to another, and see them as multifunctional cooling networks, the possibilities multiply while the costs remain relatively low. Melbourne's Covid-era parklet programme proved this works: 594 small conversions created 15,000 square metres of public space at just A$300-900 per square metre. Converting even a small percentage of New Zealand's parking infrastructure could create connected cooling corridors throughout our cities. Protecting cycleways with a tree canopy would encourage active transport while cooling neighbourhoods. Bus lanes with rain garden medians would improve service reliability while managing stormwater. Summer is six months away - maybe not enough time to do all the work needed, but certainly enough to get a plan in place. Here are five things councils could do. Auckland Council's NZ$1 billion climate action package includes grants of $1000 to $50,000 for climate projects. Wellington's Climate and Sustainability Fund and Christchurch's 50-year Urban Forest Plan provide similar frameworks. The Ministry for the Environment's National Policy Statement on Urban Development creates opportunity by removing minimum parking requirements. This frees up land for trees, gardens and public spaces instead of underused asphalt, maximising climate co-benefits: cooler surfaces, better stormwater management and more pleasant streetscapes. By next February, we can either be thanking ourselves for planting trees and converting car parks, or feeling the heat from that 50C asphalt. * Timothy Welch is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning at the University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau. This story was originally published on The Conversation.
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
Motueka Valley bracing for more floods while still in recovery
After a weekend of major flooding, Motueka Valley residents are already being warned to brace for yet another potential deluge later this week. The area has been one of the hardest hit by flooding after the Motueka River burst its banks amid torrential rain on Friday and into Saturday. Nick James reports. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
RNZ News
5 hours ago
- RNZ News
More support for flood-affected farmers and growers as Motueka residents pick up the pieces
The government has unlocked extra support for flood-affected farmers and growers in Nelson, Tasman, and Marlborough, following last week's deluge. Agriculture Minister Todd McClay said it has been classified as a medium adverse event, as the weather damaged livestock fences, culverts, and tracks, and left pasture and orchards covered in silt and flood debris. The government is making up to $100,000 available to support and coordinate recovery efforts. The classification also unlocked further support like tax relief, and enabled the Ministry of Social Development to consider Rural Assistance Payments and activating Enhanced Taskforce Green. "Last week's deluge damaged infrastructure such as livestock fences, culverts, and tracks, and left pasture and orchards covered in silt and flood debris," McClay said. "The government is making up to $100,000 available to support and coordinate recovery efforts, including up to $20,000 for the Top of the South Rural Support Trust. The remainder of the funding will be made available to other organisations that work with farmers and growers on-the-ground." The funding is on top of $100,000 already contributed by the government to the Mayoral Relief Fund. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii It comes as Motueka Valley residents are clearing up properties, taking stock of damage and getting ready for the potential of another deluge of rain later this week. The area has been one of the hardest hit by flooding after the Motueka River burst its banks. Seventeen homes were deemed uninhabitable following the local state of emergency in Nelson and Tasman. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii Scott Bowler was in his house bus named Tumbleweed near the Motueka River when a landslide came down on it during Friday night's storm. "It was a pretty scary experience actually because I thought my bus, my house and all that was going to be washed into the river," he said. Bowler had a pet goat named "Yeeetus" [spelt with three e's to mimic the sound he made] and a Great Dane named Ares. Yeeetus, caused a stir when the water started coming down. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii "The goat disappeared while we were all moving the cars and I thought oh here we go, the goat's gone," Bowler said. "But once we were all finished the goat came running back to the bus and he was happy as." He planned to move his bus closer to the coast in preparation for rain expected later this week. Ashton Wood owns an apple orchard near the Motueka River and said the water is the most he's seen during the 15-plus years he's been farming there. He called on authorities to bolster flood protection up the Motueka. Wood said that $2.2 million worth of work on the flood banks had been done from Woodmans Corner near the river to the township of Motueka. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii "That probably needs to be done the length of the river," he said. He lost one hectare's worth of apple trees and the water washed away fence posts and hundreds of storage bins. "I have never seen rain like it, in terms of a space of one hour the whole area was running with water," Wood said. He said he'd just have to see what happened with regard to more rain expected in the coming days. When RNZ arrived at Naomi Pickett's lifestyle property she was cleaning up items that had washed onto the land which included dead livestock, an exercise bike and crates. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii Pickett spoke about how she felt when the water started rising on the weekend. "I felt like I was in Waterworld, you know the movie? Just like there above it all. "It was quite daunting really cause we have done this before, and we could see that there was a lot of silt in the water and a lot of stuff and that I was going to be a big clean up." She said the silt made her nervous about the prospect of more water later this week. "We are kind of concerned that because of the silt the water won't go in [to the land] and cause more flooding." Motueka Valley resident Bianca Fraser said the nearby river was loud when the rain was coming down on Friday. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii "It just sounded like the ocean was in our backyard." Fraser said her property was high enough above the river that she did not think she'd be affected by the additional rain forecast for Thursday, but she worried about her neighbours. There have been 373 weather-related insurance claims from Friday onwards across, home, contents, motor and commercial policies, with some claims as far north as Auckland. IAG executive general manager of claims, Stephannie Ferris, said with claims still to come through, she expected more homes would be deemed uninhabitable. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
