This week marks two years since Cyclone Gabrielle swept down the North Island, leaving significant damage in its wake.
Following on quickly from the earlier Cyclone Hale, both adverse weather events caused severe flooding and slips in parts of the Wairarapa, with communities in some areas being cut off and families having to be evacuated.
Along with damaging homes, businesses and farming properties, the cyclones affected roading and drainage networks, bridges, culverts and other infrastructure in the region. The initial response and follow on recovery work programmes have involved a wide range of government, rural sector and community organisations, local iwi, business groups and council teams.
“While the overall recovery could take another three to five years, significant progress has been made to help address the immediate impact of the cyclones on individuals, whānau and communities in our district,” said Wairarapa Recovery Office (WRO) Programme Manager Simon Taylor.
“This is a tribute to everyone involved in the response and recovery effort to date, and to those still working to support people in impacted areas.”
WRO was established after the cyclones to coordinate initiatives across the three Wairarapa district councils and with a range of other local organisations. Mr Taylor said the collective effort across the large number of agencies involved has been huge.
“Our strength as a district is our willingness and ability to mobilise and work together to support our communities when emergencies happen. The Recovery Office and district councils have also actively been involved in initiatives to build community resilience ahead of the next disaster event alongside our partner organisations.”
This has involved WRO working with councils and the Wellington Region Emergency Management Office (WREMO) on initiatives to donate emergency resources to isolated communities, better equip community halls and marae as places where people can gather after a disaster, and support community preparedness activities.
All three district councils have also been reviewing and improving their response processes based on the learnings from the cyclones, and looking at ways to build emergency management capability, both in-house and in local communities.
“The two-year anniversary is a chance to recognise the considerable gains made across the region on readiness and resilience efforts, while remembering that the current recovery process still has a long time to run.
“Our thoughts at this time are with those that were impacted by Cyclones Hale and Gabrielle, particularly those still working through the after-effects, who continue to need our collective support.”
Wairarapa Recovery Office and local councils will be sharing updates and recovery stories to mark the two-year anniversary during February. Look out for updates on our social media pages, the Wairarapa Recovery Office website, and in local media.
