The aftermath of Cyclone Hale has been revealed in flooded fields, River and coastal erosion and a bridge being completely wiped out.
Te Tai Rāwhiti was placed in a state of emergency last night as Tairāwhiti Civil defence reported that the Hikuwai River water levels reached close to the same reported levels during Cyclone Bola with peaked around 13.2 meters.
The Met Service updated the situation on their website this morning that ex-Cyclone Hale will hit the Hauraki Gulf and then move east across the Bay of Plenty onto Tairāwhiti and then offshore to the southeast later today.
Significant rain has been dumped on the Eastern Side of the North Island like Gisborne but also includes Coromandal and Northland.
Graeme Atkins from north of Ruatoria said they couldn’t remember the last time they had two sunny days in a row.
“We just haven't had a summer or a spring; We must be going back months now, September, we just haven't had any famous east coast summer weather.”
“Because we had heavy rain a week prior to this, the ground was already saturated. So what fell out of the sky yesterday just really exaggerated the terrible situation we are in.
Atkins said because of the previous weather people in the area have been trying to evacuate but are trapped because the roads are being closed.
“We have started the conversations about our places having to be abandoned because of the roads, but this is the place where we are from.”
“You know, we love it here, the fact that we might be forced to move away is not something that I am too keen on doing.”
Nedine Thatcher Swann, Tairāwhiti’s Civil Defence controller advised people in the area to take the weather event ‘seriously’ and to keep off the roads.
One weather station between Tokomaru and Tolaga bay has recorded 372mm of rain since Sunday afternoon with a report saying that the Tolaga bay township was also flooded last night.
Federated Farmers Gisborne Wairoa President Toby Williams told RNZ that farmers are ready to get out on their famers and assess the damage from the weather.
“We had plenty of warning, so farmers would have moved their stock to higher ground where they can and woken up first light this morning to assess the damage”.
Williams said there will be a massive clean-up effort and also compared the weather to Cyclone Bola.
“For some of these guys, this is the fourth time in 14 months that their fence has been flat, gone or underwater, it’s been pretty tough”.