Nearly 30 families remain isolated in the Motueka Valley as the Nelson Tasman region transitions into recovery, after two floods weeks apart caused widespread damage.
The state of emergency, which was declared on July 10, expires on Thursday with the region moving into a transition period for the next month.
About 28 families were cut off in parts of the Motueka Valley where damaged roads were impassable and could remain so for several months, Tasman District Council group recovery manager Richard Kirby said.
The residents in Graham Valley Rd, Hinetai Rd and the Wangapeka West Bank Rd had been delivered supplies by helicopter and the focus over the coming days was to reassess their needs and look at whether emergency access could be put in place.
"The couple of roads that we're talking about are fairly major and may not be repaired for two or three months so we need to also look and see what sort of access we can put in, alternative access, if we can.
"Most of them are lifestyle blocks and small sections so we've been talking to them and finding out what they need and dropping it off and we will continue that during the recovery period."
Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
As of Wednesday, 10 homes had been red stickered, 42 yellow stickered and 48 white stickered, which meant further assessment was needed, with Nelson Tasman Civil Defence currently providing accommodation for 12 people following both floods.
The district received two months of rain in a 48-hour period from June 27 and the scale of damage was exacerbated in the second flood on July 11, which was smaller but resulted in greater damage caused by high winds and saturated ground.
Kirby said there were still 40-odd road closures across the district, with contractors working across the roading network to reinstate one-way access wherever possible.
"There will be a big job to come back and do the final repairs, that work is likely to take probably 12 to 18 months, maybe two years to actually fully recover from."
The other area of focus was stabilising the river network, ahead of the long range forecast predicting more heavy rain in the months ahead, but Kirby said full repairs and work with landowners on private properties adjacent to rivers likely to take years.
"The rivers team are just highlighting where the urgent areas are so if there is any more heavy rain, we minimise further erosion and further damage, but it's fair to say that we're not going to get the rivers in any state ready for major floods for at least two, three, four years."
The ground in Motueka Valley is sodden. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Six households in the region remained without power after the most recent flood, Network Tasman operations manager Robert Derks said, with work underway to reconnect most of them before the weekend.
About 3200 households were left without power in last Friday's storm.
Three homes in Hinetai Rd and surrounds, two homes in Riwaka-Sandy Bay Rd and one in Teapot Valley Rd remained without power.
Derks said the power poles at the Mārahau site in Riwaka-Sandy Bay Rd had been wiped out by a slip and needed to be rebuilt before the power could be reinstated.
The same site had been wiped out by ex-Tropical Cyclone Gita in 2018.
Abel Tasman Sea Shuttle's Greg Knapp had been collecting debris from the Motueka Sandspit after the Tasman District Council and civil defence got in touch to see if he had a vessel to assist with the clean up from the first flood.
"Basically looking for anything that is not meant to be in the sea, tanalised posts, timber, apple bins, hail netting, fridges, I even found a kid's Ninja Turtle...there is all sorts out there, LPG bottles, you name it, it's all ended up out there."
He's spent the last few weeks loading flood debris onto his barge, Astrolabe and almost had the spit cleaned up last week, only to have to start again after last Friday's flood.
Knapp said the community had been amazing in pulling together to clean up after the floods.
A number of churches in Motueka are co-ordinating a relief effort to provide affected families with essential items lost in the floods.
Donations of clothes, shoes, household goods, kitchenware and furniture are being sought and can be dropped off at the Motueka Rec Centre on Saturday July 18 between 8.30am-9.30am with affected residents able to collect what they need between 12pm and 4pm.
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