The heavy rain has subsided in Gisborne and the state of emergency has been lifted, but authorities say landslides and slips are causing a second wave of problems.
Katie Fitzpatrick (left) with Minister for Emergency Management Kiri Allan after flooding in Gisborne left the resident's property covered in mud. Photo: RNZ / Tom Kitchin
Torrential downpours saturated the city yesterday but a heavy rain warning is still in place until the morning.
Many residents of Tūranganui-a-Kiwa are wading through thick, deep, mucky, dirty silt today, as the clean-up from intense rain began.
Katie Fitzpatrick lives at the bottom of a steep cliff face, and most of it fell on her property yesterday.
"We casually just went, as Kiwis do, for a drive to admire all the water around the place, and a pie," she said.
"We came home to eat our pie and get some more wood for the fire and looked out the back door and there's the neighbour's property in our backyard."
She described her reaction.
"Words not good for radio, insert here. Bummer, yeah, bummer was a good one, didn't really know what to do to be honest, there was quite a lot of water and a lot of mud."
Katie Fitzpatrick’s backyard was covered with deep, thick silt after flooding in Gisborne. Photo: RNZ / Tom Kitchin
On first inspection, her house had little damage but the same could not be said for her section.
"To be honest, it's a lot of mud, I don't know what to do with that much mud," she said.
Local leaders, including Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz, visited houses like Fitzgerald's today to understand the problems first-hand.
"Some just are water damaged, but others, like this one, there's a mud slide that came around the house, there's been some homes where there's clear disturbance, where it's not safe to stay there," Stoltz said outside Fitzgerald's home.
Emergency management minister Kiri Allan, also the local MP, was there too.
"Now the focus is really of assessing the impact, it's making sure that people are connected to the services that they need to be connected to, and if not, working out who the right people are to be the connectors," she said.
Nearby, a large slip blocked off access for about 20 homes on Hill Rd.
A large slip has blocked off access to about 20 homes on Hill Rd in Gisborne. Photo: RNZ / Tom Kitchin
Homes on the road were evacuated, with engineers monitoring the situation.
The slip was just a hillside yesterday, full of native trees and retaining walls.
Shona Egan lives by the hill and she wanted to transform it when she moved to the area nine years ago.
"We just wanted to get rid of the noxious weeds and honeysuckle ... we thought we'd try and put it back into native."
But now, she did not know what would come next.
"Well, it's going to be a very different kettle of fish now, the whole profile of the hill has changed."
Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz speaks to district council staff about the damage around the city. Photo: RNZ / Tom Kitchin
The state of emergency was lifted this afternoon, after rain abated and water levels dropped.
"Civil Defence will continue to have crews monitoring the region over the weekend, and our contractors are certainly very busy," Tairāwhiti Civil Defence group controller Dave Wilson said.
People who live on hillside or river banks were still encouraged to check for signs of subsidence, looking for the likes of cracks, water coming out of unusual places, sagging lawns, retaining walls or trees on strange angles, creaking noises in the house or doors sticking.
"The current weather system is extremely variable and things can change very quickly, so everyone needs to keep abreast of the latest information," Wilson said.
Anyone with any concerns should call the Gisborne District Council's 24/7 line 0800 653 800.
