With a clean-up now in full swing in Napier, the next big challenge will be to find longer-term accommodation for people who can't soon return to their homes.
Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
Hawke's Bay Civil Defence has so far assessed 225 homes, and 30 have been found not fit to live in.
"We will have some families who may need quite a significant time in some other sorts of accommodation, and that's going to be a challenge," Mayor Kirsten Wise said.
"We've already got 661-odd people in emergency housing. So it will be definitely a challenge trying to find accommodation for the people that have been affected by the flooding as well."
The evacuation centre will remain open until another option is found, she said.
It is a relief for Rachel McGrath, her two children, and partner. Their house in Meeanee flooded on Monday and got up to knee-height.
They're currently planning on staying at the Kennedy Park resort until Friday, and after that they have no plans. Their home is in no condition to live in.
"My partner just went to the house, and it's not looking great for anything. He said the house was pretty ruined, he said just everything is destroyed by the water."
She wasn't at home as the water-level rose Monday night - she was working a night shift at a mental health centre.
Since then, they've just been trying to sort everything out.
"Our insurance company on our vehicle have said they don't actually cover floods, so we've got to try and figure that out, but we'll get there.
"If we can get through this we can get through anything really."
Search on for evacuees
McGrath and her family are just some of the over 100 people who spent the night at the evacuation centre at the park.
But the authorities know there are many more who have evacuated from their home, and still haven't gone back.
Advice on Monday evening was for people to leave and go to the homes of friends and families, but that has now changed.
"We still have significant capacity, both at Kennedy Park, at the Angus Inn in Hastings, and at the Omahu Marae," Wise said.
"We would really like to encourage people, if they are living in cramped environments, to come and approach us, because we can find somewhere else for them to go, and wrap a support package around them."
The council is now working to proactively find them.
"That's where the Taiwhenua will actually play a really big role because they've got a good network, particularly post-Covid.
"So we'll be tapping into that to try and find the people who we know have vacated their homes, but not quite sure where to."
Dean Mardon was able to save CDs, DVDs and records from his sodden record shop, Electric City Music, on Dalton St Photo: RNZ / Harry Lock
Tidy up and start again
The water has gone, but evidence of its devastation remains - cars still strewn across the middle of roads, and silt plastered across pavements.
To help people, tip fees will be waived today so those affected can get rid of their destroyed belongings.
While most shops, cafes and businesses were able to re-open yesterday - some weren't, and were now having to re-build.
Dean Mardon was sent a video late Monday evening by his wife as she walked through his sodden record shop, Electric City Music, on Dalton St.
The next morning he arrived, and with the help of his landlord, shifted all 6000 CDs, DVDs and records into a separate location.
The day after, he set about ripping up the carpet.
Regan McCormack standing in his shed Photo: RNZ / Harry Lock
"Basically it's a bare shell, we have to start again."
Not all his collection has survived.
"Well the stuff that's on the floor, CDs, and boxes, yeah there's some damage there, some old records.
"Damn shame because some of them are really good. I shouldn't have had them on the floor but you know you don't expect an event like this, do you?"
In those suburbs hardest hit by the flooding, cars can once again travel freely.
In Marewa, every few houses along, people are beginning to assess the damage, and start to put their sheds back to normal...
Regan McCormack balanced an entire freezer on top of his boat late on Monday evening. As the water level rose in the shed, so did the freezer, with McCormack heading out on four separate occasion to ensure it stayed safe.
To get it up onto the boat, he enlisted the help of his seven-and-a-half-month pregnant wife.
Fabrics and craft work were left in ruins in Kaye's workshop. Photo: RNZ / Harry Lock
"I just got $700 worth of venison back from the butcher. So that would have been a bit of a costly loss."
For some people, what was in the shed was impossible to save.
"I do a lot of craft work to take to the market," said Kaye. "And you can see everything - the water's been that high in here. Everything's just turned upside down, absolutely saturated. All my craft work, gone."
Kaye's shed has been left in ruins - fabrics, linens, boxes of equipment thrown haphazardly across the room.
But her brother, Ray, said the council should have done something about it.
This happened as far as I know, nine-and-a-half [or] 10 years ago. Same thing, they've got to get the infrastructure right in Napier. It's just not right."
