“It’s a hell hole, rural communities have been nailed,” Mid Canterbury Rural Support Trust (RST) chair and Mt Somers farmer Peter Reveley said.
Flood costs are soaring as river-ravaged rural communities assess millions of dollars of farm rebuilding in the long haul to recovery.
Farmers are exhausted and mental anguish is rising as people realise the enormity of the task ahead.
Reveley urges affected farmers to tap into the support being made available through a coordinated multi-agency flood response.
Federated Farmers is leading the response in conjunction with the RST.
District councils, Beef + Lamb NZ, DairyNZ, and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) are among the key agencies providing the help farmers need to get their businesses back up and running.
Reveley says the co-ordinated response will ensure farmers’ needs are met as quickly, efficiently and safely as possible.
“Intelligence is working well; everything is pulling together,” he said.
“We have an overwhelming number of volunteers from everywhere in this country wanting to come and help.
“Once farmers assess the extent of damage and know their need, we can get these people out on farms.
“The clean up and rebuild of farms will be massive, but we are all in this together to help each other so I can only reinforce that farmers come forward and make sure we know what help they need.
“When the red weather alert was issued for Canterbury, we knew the coming few days would be a testing and uncertain time,” Ashburton Mayor Neil Brown said.
“The rural communities have been the worst hit with the nature of this event ever-changing.
“The deluge and resulting flooding have wreaked havoc on our roads, it’s cut off communities and it has been devastating for many farmers.”
Feed, stock, fences and other infrastructure has been lost.
The coordinated response of Ashburton Civil Defence and supporting emergency services leapt into action and has been doing everything from transporting supplies, assessing and repairing roads, keeping residents informed, providing emergency services and setting up welfare support.
“I have been humbled and impressed by the resilience and mateship that has been on display,” he said.
“People have pulled together; this has been great to see and as we move into the recovery stage, we need to be mindful the impacts of this event will be ongoing for farming communities for some time to come.”
As waters recede and the damage to roads and infrastructure is laid bare, patience will be needed as repairs are carried out.
“This is a tough time, but we are a strong community and I know we will get through this,” he said.
Waimakariri Mayor Dan Gordon says a vastly different landscape is emerging as floodwaters reside across his district.
Several pockets of the district were evacuated when rivers broke out, in some cases completely isolating rural families.
The Lees Valley has been particularly hard hit.
“I flew into the Lees Valley with engineers, thanks to the Defence Force that helped us out, to enable assessment of the region,” Gordon said.
“Bridges are washed out, roads are under slips, farmland is lost.
“We have activated a Rapid Assessment phase to enable repair work to get under way as quickly as possible to reconnect this community.
“RST is connecting with families to make sure they are getting the support they need.
“The present challenges are unprecedented.”
Both the Ashburton and Waimakariri districts remain under State of Emergency for at least another week.
Industry is pulling together to help farmers, so if you need or want to help, check the following options below or call 0800 FARMING.
