Latest news with #MotuekaRiver
RNZ News
17-07-2025
- Climate
- RNZ News
Stopbanks urgently being repaired in Tasman district ahead of more wet weather
The Motueka River following the two recent flooding events. Photo: SUPPLIED Flood damaged river stopbanks are being urgently repaired by Tasman District Council ahead of more wet weather that was forecast for the end of the month. The region has been slammed with two major floods in the past two weeks and Earth Sciences New Zealand is forecasting more wet weather for later in July and into early August. The council's river manager David Arseneau told RNZ a key priority was fixing an area of stopbank at the top of the Wai-iti River. "The whole stopbank just got scoured out over about 150 metres or so, we are actively out there rebuilding firstly the ground that the stopbank used to be on, and then the stopbank - before the next weather event comes in," he said. Council workers had been out in boats surveying the river network and assessing the damage. Another area that had been hit was on the Motueka River around Peach Island, where the stopbanks overtopped. The Motueka River in flood. Photo: SUPPLIED "They've survived and stood up. So right now we are planning out what that repair job looks like and also looking forward to an upgrade and strengthening... it's the same with the Brooklyn stop banks as well," he said. In many areas of the Tasman District, rivers have massively widened and realigned through paddocks and farms, Arseneau said. "In the short term we are just not going to be able to solve those issues on any kind of scale before the next flood or the flood after that. "It's a multi-year recovery that we are looking at for property damage and the impacts on our rural communities." The rivers had completely changed, he said. "They are no longer the rivers they were three or four weeks ago. When big events like this come along, the rivers flex, adapt and change... then they'll hopefully be relatively stable for a few decades." The Wai-iti River in recent days. Photo: SUPPLIED The Nelson Tasman region had begun transitioning from a state of emergency into recovery mode . As of Wednesday, 10 homes have been red stickered, 42 yellow stickered and 48 white stickered, which meant further assessment was needed. Nelson Tasman Civil Defence is providing accommodation for 12 people following both floods. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
14-07-2025
- Climate
- RNZ News
Moteuka farmer describes the harrowing moment his wife got swept away in floodwaters
Land near the Motueka River remains laden with silt and debris. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi A farmer in the Moteuka Valley has described the harrowing moment his wife got swept away in floodwaters in Nelson-Tasman. Jamie Huvinton and his family lost everything in the extreme rain over the last two weeks, with paddocks, fences and sheds being completely washed away by the currents. Huvinton and his wife were trying to move horses to higher ground during the first deluge two weeks ago when she got swept away. "It was around lunchtime, so just upstream from us was a really big island of gravel in the middle of the river. "The river came and flooded that island, diverted the river straight towards our property, that surrounded our house." Huvinton said the water was rising quickly. "On our front lawn we had my daughter's horses and I said to my wife, we need to move them to higher ground, otherwise we're not going to be able to. "We were walking them through the floodwater and as we're going down, there's like a little dip in our driveway and at that stage, the river was just like a torrent through there, but we had to move the horses. "And as she went through the depth, she slipped in the flood water and got swept away, and there was nothing I could do. "I had to grab the other horse and keep going and the only thing that stopped her from getting completely swept down the river was that she got caught up in the fence." Huvinton said it was an extremely traumatic experience and his wife was significantly bruised. Their home was now yellow-stickered and Huvinton, his wife and two children were staying in a rented bus on their property, as they could not find accommodation suitable for their animals. He said the community had been incredible, turning up at his property with food, skips, a port-a-loo and even diggers to clear mud and debris from around their home. A pear grower in Tasman, Charlton Malcolm, said his orchard next to the Motueka River was facing a mammoth clean-up after two major floods left it inundated with silt, sand and debris. Echodale Orchard in Ngātīmoti was just getting stuck into cleaning up from flooding last month when Friday's deluge hit, causing more extensive damage. "The river came through roughly the same height as the first flood but with a lot more damage because all the trees were gone and the riverbank was weak. It's just completely devastating," Malcolm said. He said the orchard lost about two hectares of its land, and structural repairs could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. "We have about 50,000 to 60,000 pear trees in the orchard all around the five year mark, quite young trees which is good because they should be able to bounce back from the flood, from being hit, but time will tell," he said. "The weather is looking pretty good for the next couple of weeks so we should be able to make headway again in removing the sand and debris hopefully, then we've just got to repair the bank and hopefully there's not another 100-year flood again." Malcolm said growers across the district had been hit hard. "There's plenty of other growers down this river that have been hit a lot harder, in the same sort of situation as us, we're going ahead and cleaning it up. It's going to cost us a fortune really for all of us to clean this up and we're just all hoping that the government will give us funding or support or something to get us through for the next couple of years," he said. The government was assessing where funding might be needed in the region and how best to support it. On 30 June the government classified the floods as a medium-scale adverse event and made up to $100,000 available to support and co-ordinate recovery efforts for flood-affected farmers and growers. 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 . Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
30-06-2025
- Climate
- 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
29-06-2025
- Climate
- RNZ News
Tasman, Nelson to prepare for more heavy rain following flooding
Minister for Emergency Management Mark Mitchell and Tasman Deputy Mayor Stuart Bryant speak to reporters after a helicopter survey of the flooding. Photo: Tasman District Council / Facebook The storm-battered Tasman and Nelson area is now having to prepare for more heavy rain on Thursday and Friday. It comes as the area is cleaning up after heavy rain on Friday and Saturday. RNZ journalist Samantha Gee was part of a group - including Minister for Emergency Management Mark Mitchell - which surveyed the damage by helicopter. The worst affected area appeared to be the township of Kohatu, beside the Motueka River, and across to Quinney's Bush, she said. The flooding has left one person dead , and caused damage across the Motukea Valley, stock losses and road closures. Following the helicopter survey on Sunday afternoon, Civil Defence controller for the area Alec Louverdis told reporters staff were being prepared for another bout of rain. "Unfortunately it is not just the response but we are looking ahead to Thursday and Friday with the news that we can expect some very high rainfall. "It is the last thing we wanted to hear but something we are preparing for." Parts of the area are experiencing problems with cellular coverage. Photo: Samantha Gee / RNZ The locality of Kohatu, beside the Motueka River, near Quinney's Bush, remained one of the worst hit areas. State Highway 6 through the area was closed. Two other roads had re-opened - State highway 63 in Marlborough and the Wakefield Street to St Arnaud route, Louverdis said. Parts of the area, though, were experiencing problems with cellular coverage, especially Wakefield, Street Arnaud and Richmond, after slips took out parts of the fibre optic cable. Chorus today said it had managed to restore some connections around St Arnaud, but Louverdis said other parts of the connection had been badly hit and Civil Defence was trying to get Starlink connections for some people affected. Tasman's deputy mayor Stuart Bryant - who was also present in the helicopter on Sunday - told reporters damage to the Motueka Valley was more extensive than could be seen from the ground. "Most of the damage progressively gets worse as you go up the Motueka Valley until you get the Wangapeka confluence, [there's a] severely damaged hop farm and sheep and beef farm there with lots of damaged fence, lots of gravel across the paddocks," Bryant said. During this afternoon's press conference, Mitchell said a rain radar for the top of the South Island was a priority. Nelson's closest rain radar is in Wellington and the next is further south in Westland, limiting the region's access to accurate weather data. Mitchell said he would look at rectifying that. Minister for Emergency Management Mark Mitchell. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii "Definitely we're talking about a rain radar, I'm very motivated to try and progress that as quickly as we can because it's obvious that it can provide more early warning for the decision makers," he said. "The other thing we're doing is we're bringing NIWA and MetService together and quite simply the reason we're doing that is so we can provide much better data and a much better product out to the regions, the CDEM teams and the mayors." Damage assessments are continuing across the region Anyone with any worries or issues should contact the Civil Defence community hub set up in the Motueka Rec Centre. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
28-06-2025
- Climate
- RNZ News
Person dies after reportedly being hit by tree while clearing flood damage south of Nelson
The Waimea River near Brightwater in Nelson in flood yesterday. Photo: RNZ/Mark Papalii Nelson Tasman Civil Defence says houses in Motueka flooded last night and the main worry now is the Motueka River. Civil Defence will fly over a number of areas at the top of the south this morning to assess the damage and to identify areas in need, focusing on the Motueka Valley. MetService is investigating reports of a tornado after more than dozen homes in Waitara, north of New Plymouth, were damaged when strong winds ripped through shortly after midnight. Fire and Emergency says there were no injuries, but the fierce winds blew out a sunroom, lifted roofs, and downed fences and solar panels. As it happened: Take a look back at RNZ's live blog from Saturday.
