Danelle Kendrick, whose Whirinaki home was yellow-stickered following Cyclone Gabrielle, says she is glad a decision on whether people in the area will be able to rebuild their houses or not, is imminent. Photo: RNZ / Lauren Crimp
People desperate to find out if their land will be built on again after properties were destroyed in the Auckland floods or by Cyclone Gabrielle are relieved to hear an answer is imminent.
The government announced it would have the information it needs on high-risk areas from insurers and councils in three weeks - and then it could start deciding whether to rebuild, retreat or something in between.
Some people could be told to leave an area completely, and move somewhere else.
Or, the government might choose other forms of resilience like building up stopbanks, or ensuring houses are appropriately designed for their location.
Whatever the decision, Hawke's Bay locals were craving certainty.
Crab Farm Winery owner Hamish Jardine's six-and-a-half hectare vineyard off State Highway 5 was completely annihilated, and he was yet to make any decisions on its future.
"It's too devastating.
"It's too unfixable, it's almost like a bit of a grieving process I'm going through."
Jardine said he did not know what he wanted from the government - just some certainty would do.
"I'm okay with a decision, we don't have to necessarily go along with it, but it does feel a little bit warmer than not knowing anything at all, or that people aren't actually trying to work their way through it."
Whirinaki resident Danelle Kendrick, whose home was yellow-stickered, was heartened the agonising wait would be over soon.
"I think that's a really decent timeframe, and it's given them a few good solid weeks to actually put some thought into the processes and everything like that to give a decent answer," she said.
"We want to know that they've ticked all the boxes."
But she said of course, the sooner the better - because cash would run out quickly.
Those like Kendrick, with displacement insurance, had a slice of their rent covered, but only for a year, which was not enough time for a complete rebuild if that was required.
A few kilometres north at Tangoio Marae, chair Hōri Reti said they were yet to have a second assessment done on their buildings because diggers were still clearing silt to allow access.
Because of that, Reti said it was too early to talk with his community about what the future holds.
While they would take comfort in knowing where they stood, if the government decided rebuilding was not on the cards, the community would not budge, he said.
"This is our whenua, we got nowhere else to go, so we would be pleaing [sic] to the government that it is not deemed as not rebuildable."
Cyclone Recovery Minister Grant Robertson said an April decision was far quicker than the four-month wait following the Canterbury earthquakes.
But he wanted to make the right calls - not the fastest and easiest ones.
"I recognise for people who are desperate for certainty and who are desperate for an outcome, they want that to happen really quickly.
"But if we move too quickly we'll make the wrong decision and that will go against what's actually required in communities."
Robertson said the Cyclone Taskforce would work closely with councils and recovery agencies to make sure communities had a say in their future.
