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RNZ News
14-07-2025
- Climate
- RNZ News
Tapawera residents battle to get home after major slips
Some Tapawera residents haven't been able to get back to their homes. Photo: RNZ/Nathan Mckinnon Tasman residents have been working relentlessly to clear major slips and get access to their homes just days after a second storm brought devastation to the region. A chunk of the mountainside has crashed down Wangapeka West Bank Road, near Tapawera. It has brought mounds of dirt over the road, cutting off at least four properties . Aspect contracting Darren Richardson said he was trying to clear it out for residents. "You just bore your way in and make yourself a bench with the digger and just start cutting into it. "You got to keep an eye on what's above you. So if you feel any - see any rocks come down you just get out." He's made a path through to the other side so people can walk through. But further up the road, there's more devastation and the piles of logs, mud and debris makes the road impassable. "A lot of slop from the creeks and trees that have fallen over from the wind. "I've cleared most of it up - just to get a track through - but there's a lot to clean," Richardson said. Jo Shaw and neighbour Brian Lambert in Tapawera, Tasman. Photo: RNZ/Nathan Mckinnon Jo Shaw is one of the residents who lives on the other side of the slip. She has been cut off from her house for days since Friday's deluge. "It's just devastating for everyone I think. I smashed my phone accidentally, I've now got no phone to even try and find out what's going up there. "So I'm using everyone else's phone, can I get through? Is my cat ok? Is the house still standing?," Shaw said. She doesn't know how long she'll be out of her house for. Logs and trees collapsed in the gales and rain, hitting her neighbour's cars and damaging her water supply. "I'm just hoping I can get some clothes, and I can't stay there because my whole water system, pipes, everything has all just been floated away. "So I'm going to have to stay at a mate's caravan." Sections of Tapawera-Baton road have become mud, with small mountains of logs and trees at the sides. Tasman civil defence said 13 teams were visiting flood affected properties to investigate damage on Monday. That included in parts of Tadmore, Rocky River at the Motueka Valley, Dovedale, Baton River and in the Wai-iti area. Tapawera Community Led Development community connector Della Webby. Photo: RNZ/Nathan Mckinnon Della Webby at the Tapawera community centre said residents couldn't drink or prepare food without boiling water. Like in parts of Dovedale, Tapawera Residents were still under a boil water notice, including those on private bores. The level of flooding has made the contamination risk high. "We're supplying bottled water and containers of water at the community centre. So they are available for the residents to collect if they need them. "We are currently working with TDC navigators to source extra water to bring in through the week." Webby said the emotional toll of the second storm has been even more severe than the first. "It's been incredibly hard on the community. The anxiety and emotion of people has been extremely high. "At the first event, a lot of people were just in shock, and now they are starting to crumble." Elsewhere in Tapawera, farms and businesses have been tirelessly clearing out mud, gravel and silt. Hayden Oldham from New Hoplands said "it's back to the start" to clean up their engineering workshop and hops. "Everything we cleaned up has been spread back out and gone through sheds and gardens." He said the workshop had about 300 millimetres of water running through it and it left about the same amount of silt and sand. "Around the sheds it's washed away all of our shed area, washed all the gravel into the hop gardens, got water all through the sheds and into some of our accommodation." He said the company's hop farm in Ngatimoti had been engulfed in a thick layer of silt, logs had taken out the hop posts, which would need to be put back up. He was hopeful the weather wouldn't affect the hops too much. "Hops are real hardy and right now they're asleep in the ground, so I am hopeful they won't get too affixiated. "If we can scrape the worst of the slurry off they should be able to grow through the sand." But he said the clean-up would be costly for businesses and farms, and many people still had insurance claims from the first flood to be sorted. "We've had floods here before but never this bad - and not twice." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Reuters
03-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Canadian dollar pares gains ahead of US tariff decision
TORONTO, March 3 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar strengthened against its U.S. counterpart on Monday but gave back much of its earlier gains as domestic data showed manufacturing activity contracting for the first time in six months and investors awaited details on expected U.S. trade tariffs. The loonie was trading 0.2% higher at 1.4430 per U.S. dollar, or 69.30 U.S. cents, after moving in a range of 1.4370 to 1.4466. On Friday, the currency touched its weakest intraday level since February 4 at 1.4471. U.S. President Donald Trump will decide on Monday what levels of tariffs he will impose early on Tuesday on Canada and Mexico amid last-minute negotiations over border security and efforts to halt the inflow of fentanyl opioids, his commerce secretary said. The tariffs are scheduled to take effect at 12:01 a.m. EST (0501 GMT) on Tuesday. Canada sends about 75% of its exports to the United States. "With still a little bit of uncertainty in the air, traders are staying on the sidelines, keeping that U.S. dollar elevated until more details are provided of the exact specifics of the tariffs," said Darren Richardson, chief operating officer at Richardson International Currency Exchange Inc. The S&P Global Canada Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to 47.8 from 51.6 in January, its first move below the 50.0 no-change mark since August, as an uncertain trade outlook led to firms turning the most pessimistic since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The price of oil, one of Canada's major exports, settled nearly 2% lower at $68.37 a barrel on reports OPEC+ will proceed with a planned oil output increase in April and on worries that a trade war could hurt the global economy. Canadian bond yields were mixed across the curve. The 10-year was down less than half a basis point at 2.896% after earlier touching its lowest since September 18 at 2.878%.
