A Motueka man says it's a relief he and his neighbours have had electricity restored, five days after debris in the flooded Motueka River tore out the power lines near their homes.
Geoff Grocott said the deluge of rain that hit the top of the South Island on Friday caused two power poles near the river to be surrounded by floodwater and torn out of the ground, cutting power to a number of residents in Douglas Road.
"Our four immediate neighbours have got generators, so we all kept our frozens frozen and we're all on well water, so we have electric pumps to pump the water and the generators gave us fresh water."
After using a generator to power the essentials for the past five days, he was pleased when the electricity was restored around 6pm on Wednesday.
"It was delightful. We turned the heater on, wonderful. It was four degrees in our house yesterday morning and it's not usually quite that cold."
Inspecting the land around his home after floodwaters receded, it appeared large trees carried down the swollen river had built up against the concrete poles, knocking them over, with the force pulling down another three poles further inland.
Flooding at Motueka River down river of Pokororo. Photo: Tess Brunton / RNZ
He and his neighbours lived several hundred metres back from the river, behind a stopbank, which saved their homes from damage, but the raging water left a wake of destruction in its trail.
It had washed away parts of paddocks, ripped out trees, ruined a nearby wetland and left debris including silt and rocks, apple crates, silage wrap and agricultural equipment strewn through the paddocks around them.
"We were watching the river level rising up the side of the stopbank and at about 8 o'clock [last Friday] night it stopped rising, so we started to breathe again. It was about a metre below the top of the stopbank."
Network Tasman operations manager Robert Derks said there had been a number of power outages in Tasman that day, but most were able to be restored quickly.
However, it took about five days for power to be restored to 12 households around Douglas Road after five power poles were washed away by floodwaters.
All those homes now had power restored, apart from one house that was running off a generator.
The state of emergency in the Nelson Tasman region was extended on Thursday by another seven days in anticipation of further heavy rain.
Nelson Tasman Civil Defence group controller Alec Louverdis said the community was "breathing a sigh of relief" that the expected rainfall had not eventuated.
MetService lifted its heavy rain warnings for the region in the late afternoon.
ITM Motueka store manager Peter Faithful gave out free sandbags to desperate residents. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
The small number of people that were told to vacate their homes in Brooklyn, near Motueka, as a precaution due to the forecast, were now able to return.
In Motueka, ITM store manager Peter Faithful said with the support of Motueka Contracting they had been busy filling up and delivering sandbags to those in need, with residents coming from as far afield as Hope, Wakefield, Brightwater and up the Motueka River West Bank to stock up.
He said Rapid Relief Team NZ later arrived with a hopper machine to manufacture sandbags, making it a lot easier.
They've since made more than 3000 sandbags and handed out close to 2500.
Some of those had been delivered to elderly residents and Faithful said he'd heard many horror stories about people's properties flooding.
"We've gone out there and had hugs and tears and emotions... it's only a sandbag but it's it's been a bit of a saviour for some people."
Faithful said on Thursday afternoon, it was looking like the town had escaped the worst of the second bout of heavy rain that had been forecast.
"If it does look like it is going to come through bad, we'll be on standby for sandbags, so people don't worry, we'll make sure they get them."
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