Wairarapa took a battering from the “most significant weather event New Zealand has seen this century”, with communities cut off well into yesterday evening.
Although a state of emergency was not declared for the region, the Wairarapa Emergency Operations Centre [EOC] was activated.
Emergency management controller and Masterton District Council [MDC] regulatory services manager Steve May said the activation helped councils connect on a more formal level.
He said a briefing was held for the three councils at 4pm yesterday, and he expected staff would work into the evening.
“There’s no real shut-off time, we’re looking at the rain gauges. We could be here until midnight, we’re not going home early.”
Wairarapa MP and Civil Defence Minister Kieran McAnulty declared a national state of emergency just before 9am yesterday, but it only applied to Northland, Auckland, Tairawhiti, Bay of Plenty, Waikato, and Hawke’s Bay.
Tararua District Council also declared a state of emergency shortly before 9am, and was added to the national state of emergency later in the morning.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said Cyclone Gabrielle is the most significant weather event New Zealand has seen this century.
This was the third time in New Zealand history that a national state of emergency has been declared – the other two times were the Christchurch earthquake and at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic.
Tinui resident Caryl Forrest said the situation in the area was “atrocious”.
She said Tinui School is completely flooded, and it would take some elbow grease before school can start again.
Over 800 Wairarapa homes lost power yesterday morning, and 100s remained without power into the evening, according to PowerCo’s website.
“The Powerco contractors can’t reach the Tinui substation, so the Tinui district will be without power for a while longer,” Forrest said.
MDC said Tinui, Riversdale, Castlepoint, and Mataikona all had no road access yesterday and it had not re-opened by the time of publication.
Many other Masterton roads remained closed yesterday afternoon.
South Wairarapa’s Waihenga River Bridge, Ponatahi Bridge, Ponatahi Rd, Moeraki Rd, White Rock Rd, and Ngakonui Rd closed yesterday afternoon.
While many homes lost power, many others were affected by mobile outages.
At the time of publication, Blairlogie and Mataikona were still without cell phone coverage.
Castlepoint Station owner and Castlepoint rural fire chief Anders Crofoot said the sea was “very angry and dirty”, and it had risen to the car park just before high tide.
Riversdale Surf Lifesaving Club chair Dave Rose said the damage to the beach was not as bad as he had anticipated.
He said it would be interesting to see what would happen with today’s high tide.
Further inland, Bideford farmer Jamie Falloon said by mid-afternoon, flood waters were one metre deeper than they were during last month’s Cyclone Hale.
He said the flood was going to be quite damaging if the rain continued.
Metservice said although Cyclone Gabrielle is taking a southeast track, moving away from New Zealand early this morning, the impacts will be felt for much longer.
It said the storm wasn’t over for Wairarapa yet, with up to 100mm of rain due to fall tomorrow.
