Here, we are still crawling out of another drought with the small falls of rain from those two lows on either side of us, taking our farm finally over 100mm for the year. Difficult and insidious, but not the instant gut-wrenching destruction that you have with this deluge, and the huge workload and cost facing you in the months ahead.
The big concern is obviously how much winter feed has been destroyed with swamped crops and wet supplements.
It was cruel that many areas in Canterbury had only recorded 50mm or so for the year, and then that drought was broken by this event.
This storm reminded me somewhat of Cyclone Bola in early March 1988. That also broke a dry period and wrought terrible destruction in Northern Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne. Recordings of 400mm in one day and a massive 900mm for the three-day event near Tolaga Bay. Three people were killed in a car that was swept away, the Wairoa Bridge collapsed and the damage to hillsides, cropping land, riverbanks and so on was horrendous. The landscape still carries the scars over 30 years later.
This latest storm didn’t have a name, but it was unusual. It was a huge deep low-pressure system spanning 3400km, just 600km narrower than Australia. It tracked down the west coast of the North Island slowly before crossing to the east coast and parking off Canterbury. It wasn’t that stormy but sucked a huge amount of moisture-rich air from the Pacific Island regions, acting like an atmospheric river, and the Southern Alps blocked the airflow. The Alps usually do that when the airflow is coming from the more common westerly direction. The dry soils wouldn’t have helped, as unable to soak up much of the fall.
Also not helpful was that seas have been higher due to the low-pressure system that had been up here the previous week and the high tides from the supermoon, thus slowing the flow to sea.
No one was killed, although it was close for some who were heroically saved by others and some lucky that their dire plight was noticed.Â
The pictures of farmers putting their lives at risk in terrible conditions to save their stock show how we do care intensely for our charges. But next time this happens, all of us must think of the responsibility we also have for our families and friends and make sure the risk to our own life is managed appropriately.
A bouquet to the weather forecasters who picked this event reasonably accurately several days beforehand and certainly saved a lot of livestock, as friends from down there tell me they moved animals from places where they certainly would have perished.Â
The event may have caused more rain in the foothills than expected, but they weren’t too far off elsewhere. It was obviously the flow down the rivers and the stopbanks inability to contain it that was the main problem.
Also hats off to the mainstream media, which has been consistently reporting farmers’ and rural householders’ distress with compassion and empathy. We often feel that the media is not on our side, preferring to give a platform to our critics, but when destructive events like this occur, the media does what is right.
And, now the heartening stories of groups and individuals coming in to help with the clean-up.
The Student Volunteer Army has been mobilised and students from Canterbury and Lincoln are out there giving farmers help and just as importantly moral support. I worked for a few days alongside the students when I went down to help with the Farmy Army response after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, and they were a fantastic bunch of young people. The Canterbury farmers’ help in Christchurch in 2011 hasn’t been forgotten and hopefully in part will be repaid now that they need assistance.
Those of us who can, need to get spare supplements down there to try and bridge the gap for some of what has been lost.
It’s going to be a tough few months ahead but you will get through. Obviously support each other, but also reach out to the likes of the Rural Support Trust and the companies we deal with as they are more than prepared to assist.
All the best.
