Whakatāne district incurs millions in storm costs

The council’s reserves and infrastructure teams last week issued a report that proposed a higher budget for storm damage in the district’s future annual and long-term plans. The report said that 2022’s winter had been the wettest on record. While Standardised Precipitation Index records have not yet been published for spring, the report said it was expected to follow a similar pattern.

Heavy rainfall and rough seas caused the erosion of the Maraetotara Reserve in Ōhope, with remediation works estimated to cost $100,000 being undertaken. In October, a slip on the Ngā Tapuwae o Toi walkway caused the closure of a section of the track between West End and Ōtarawairere Bay. This is estimated to cost up to $200,000 to reinstate.

Whakatane district chief financial officer Gary Connolly said that councils across New Zealand should be talking about the growing cost of repairs and remediation due to severe weather.

“Not all [councils], but a lot of them, are experiencing exactly the same thing and some of them at magnitudes significantly higher than this paper represents,” Connolly said.

Meanwhile, council chief executive Steph O’Sullivan said that the changing climate has a large effect on some of the strategy questions that come up during long-term planning.

“Is our road-building at a standard that is going to withstand this?” O’Sullivan said. “Culvert sizes, where we put walkways and how we build them – those are things that we are going to have to think about as part of a resilience strategy going forward. What is our insurance market going to meet and not meet in future?

“All councils, to some degree, are facing this, and some of us are facing it more than others.”