'Huge devastation' around Tolaga Bay - Meka Whaitiri

Forestry companies have offered to help clean up the flood-hit East Coast, but their heavy machinery is going nowhere because of closed roads. Associate Minister for Forestry Meka Whaitiri went with Civil Defence on an aerial survey of the Gisborne region on Wednesday to get a sense of how the Tolaga Bay area is coping. Heavy rain and swollen rivers dislodged millons of tonnes of logging debris - known as slash - at the weekend damaging properties, roads, and bridges. Ms Whaitiri told our reporter Sarah Robson the view from the air was both better and worse than she'd expected.