Whangārei District Mayor Ken Couper and Whangārei district civil defence emergency operations centre controller Victoria Harwood. Photo: Susan Botting / Local Democracy Reporting
Whangārei Mayor Ken Couper would like to see the district's state of emergency lifted on Tuesday afternoon.
Emergency response leaders will on Tuesday be reviewing the district's state of emergency as its week-long tenure expires.
It was put in place from 4pm on Tuesday 20 January for seven days.
Couper said his inclination would be to lift the state of emergency, so that a sense of normality can start to return. But he said that was dependent on what emergency response leaders decided.
The state of emergency was brought due to the severe weather impacts on the north‑east coast - including Whangaruru, Ōakura and surrounding areas.
The area suffered huge damage in the wake of a weather bomb which brought more than a summer's worth of rain overnight on Saturday 17 January and into the early hours of Sunday 18 January.
The declaration allows authorities to override normal rules to evacuate at-risk communities, control access and roads, keep people out of unsafe buildings and act quickly without red tape.
Couper said work was continuing in the Whangārei district emergency operations centre and out on the district's hard-hit northeast coast even though it was Auckland Northland Anniversary Day (Monday).
This work included civil defence welfare checks on affected communities.
Twenty-two homes have been evacuated at Ōakura.
Couper has officially "designated" the Whangārei District Council' (WDC)'s Hikurangi - Coastal Ward under the Building Act 2004 to help manage ongoing risks to people from buildings affected by flooding and land instability as a result of the severe weather.
Building inspectors had then been able to start checking damaged properties.
Red or yellow stickers have been placed on several properties meaning homeowners cannot go back to them, or in the case of yellow stickers do so only under supervision.
There are fines of up to $200,000 for anybody who breaks the rules that red or yellow stickered houses have in place.
WDC infrastructure chair Brad Flower. Photo: NZME
Meanwhile, those using the fragile, narrow sole southern access into the weather bomb-hit Whangaruru coast have been asked to slow down and consider others.
WDC Infrastructure chair Brad Flower said the winding gravel Kaiikanui Road was holding up considering the significant increase in its traffic since the giant Helena Bay hill slip overnight Wednesday (SUBS: Jan 21).
Most were driving responsibly, but he said some people needed to slow down.
The road's basically one lane or one-and-a-half lanes for quite a bit of it, Flower said.
"If you crash you're either going to go up a bank, or over a bank.
"If you don't need to go on that road don't, and if you do, slow down.
"We don't want to have to have that road blocked by attending to an accident or repairing the surface."
A Whangārei Civil Defence emergency operations centre planning meeting about how to deal with the Helena Bay hill slip and affected community. Photo: Susan Botting / Local Democracy Reporting
Flower said people travelling too fast spread gravel into ditches, increased corrugations and made potholes.
He said it had been heartening to see locals being sensible.
A local person had towed a caravan out over the Kaiikanui Road exit with another person acting as a pilot vehicle ahead of it, warning incoming traffic it was pending.
There are checkpoints at the Whangārei end of the road checking who is entering the flood-hit area.
And traffic lights were put in place on Sunday (SUBS: 25/1) along 800 metres of Kaiikanui Road's narrowest and most dangerous section.
Mayor Couper said the road was reserved for residents and emergency services only.
Bach owners were being asked to use the northern exit out of the flood-hit area. Access via this option's now repaired Ngaiotonga Bridge had returned on Saturday.
Ōakura. Photo: Heli Me / supplied
What does Whangārei district's state of emergency mean?
Under the Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) Act 2002 a state of local emergency can be declared when an event creates serious risk to life, property, or public safety and cannot be managed using normal powers and services alone.
People can largely go about daily life during the state of emergency. But instructions from civil defence and emergency services become legally enforceable while it remains in force.
The declaration allows authorities extra powers to evacuate people, enter homes and land without consent to rescue people, save lives, secure dangerous buildings, remove hazards such as slips and unstable structures.
It also allows Civil Defence controls to close roads and public places, restrict access to affected areas, set up and enforce checkpoints, create mandatory detours.
It also allows for local vehicles, machinery, fuel and building materials to requisitioned in extreme cases.
It also enables the Civil Defence controller to cut through standard bureaucratic processes and direct local and central government staff in what's usually a fast-moving situation.
A state of emergency declaration also allows for emergency and welfare support including setting up evacuation centres, prioritising essential supplies plus providing food, water, shelter and first aid.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
