We're checking on coastal businesses affected by the storm
We're checking on coastal businesses affected by the storm
Our Council's Economic Development team has been working its way down the west coast of the Coromandel from Colville to Te Puru to check in on as many businesses as possible to see how they're doing since Friday's storm tide and to see what we can do to help support and assist.
Our regional tourism organisation, Destination Coromandel, is preparing a campaign to remind the world that the Coromandel is open for businesses and there is still plenty to do here despite the damage to the Thames Coast Road from the storm tide. We'll be sharing the campaign on our Council channels once it begins in the next week.
Check our Council's weekly What's on in the Coromandel newsletter for upcoming events and look at the Destination Coromandel website www.thecoromandel.com for ideas on what to do and see in our District.
The Thames Coast Road (State Highway 25) is open but with cautions from the NZ Transport Agency about it being a very long work site and delays should be expected.
It took our Economic Development Officer 1hr 20 min to get from Thames to the Mussel Kitchen near Coromandel Town - not much longer than usual considering the damage to the road and the amount of work currently taking place on it.
The escorted convoy system ended yesterday evening, but some sections of the State Highway are under stop-go management while work takes place. Speed restrictions are in place past the work sites and where the road surface is rough.
NZTA has prohibited heavy vehicles over 5 tonnes on SH25 between Te Puru and Manaia and are required to take the alternative route via SH 25A through Kopu and SH 25 on the eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsula.
Stay up to date on the
Thames Coast Rd
• A new webpage has been set
up to provide travel information for the journey from Thames
to Manaia www.journeys.nzta.govt.nz/sh25
• The
key traffic and travel source which provides up-to-date
information on weather and road conditions nationwide is
www.nzta.govt.nz/traffic
• Important
information is also shared via the Transport Agency’s
official Twitter and Facebook accounts listed here
www.nzta.govt.nz/contact-us/connect-with-us/
• You
can also call 0800 4 HIGHWAYS (0800 44 44 49) to speak to
NZTA's call centre team who can provide you with traffic and
travel information either before you're travelling or when
you're on the road.
•
Damage
assessments
We've been inspecting all our
coastal reserves and infrastructure and there are some
hazards and damage to be aware of:
Rhodes Park,
Thames: salt water damage to fields. Flooding
damage in TCA gym and rugby club rooms. Football
club/archery and grandstand.
Shortland Wharf,
Thames: A damaged area has been fenced off and
sign-posted. The café and fishmongers are open and there is
easy access and plenty of parking available. All other
wharfs and jetties have had their initial inspections and
are open to the public. Further detailed assessments will be
taking place to ensure the structural integrity of the
assets and public safety.
Bird Hide
boardwalk in Thames: Boardwalk twisted and lifted -
closed.
The Thames Coastal Walkway
between Shortland Wharf and Kuranui Bay is
open.
Kuranui Bay: Grass covered with
debris or killed with salt.
Tararu Sailing
Club: Boat ramp is functional.
Roberts
St seawall stairway, Tararu: Foundations exposed,
wear and tear from waves.
Wilson St stairway,
Tararu: Completely uplifted and wrecked, footpath
uplifted, memorial uplifted. Dangerous, please
avoid.
Tararu North reserve: Freedom
camping area being cleared and cleaned but not likely open
until the weekend at the earliest. There is considerable
damage to rubbish bins, tables and grassy area 90% covered
in 50cm of beach sand and rock.
Ngarimu
Bay/Thornton Bay: Seat and picnic table and bin
swept off, beach stairs 50% washed away.
Te Puru
Reserve: Widespread debris from beach onto seaside
reserve, 3 tables lost, 2 bins, 2-5m of foreshore eroded
away in places. Machinery almost finished cleaning reserve,
Norfolk pine along the shore undermined, scheduled for
topping next week. Boat ramp is open.
Waiomu
Reserve: 3-5m beach edge lost, BBQ structure
completely undermined and is out of action. Seat lost. The
large quantity of beach gravel deposited on freedom camping
area has been cleared and the area is ready for use. Some
asphalt lifted.
Waiomu boat ramp: Open.
Debris cleared from 50% of car park and upper ramp. Sand
across the lower ramp below mid-tide level. Bin and seats
lost.
Ruamahunga Bay: Boat ramp
functional thanks to local community
initiative.
Tapu Reserve: Debris,
erosion and loss of seats and two picnic tables. Freedom
camping area closed.
Te Mata North:
Access road and grass now cleared of debris but freedom
camping area closed.
Waikawau: Boat ramp
is functional. Debris cleared.
Amodeo Bay boat
ramp: Thanks to the community the boat ramp and
access are functional.
Shellfish
warning
Our Parks and Reserves
team has this advice about shellfish: "All along the coast
are piles of shellfish (oysters) that are now dying and
rotting - the smell will get worse and no-one should be
eating them."
Please keep dogs away from
dotterels
At least 10 dotterel
nest zones have been re-established by DOC because the pairs
are trying to nest again. Fences are up but some people are
not respecting our rules about keeping dogs on leash and
away from the clearly marked nesting zones. With six more
weeks in the nesting period the birds are likely to try to
lay again or fledge the chicks that
survived.
Disposing of flood-damaged items
We're also still collecting
flood-damaged goods from properties until Monday 15 January.
If there is no skip bin nearby your property, leave it next
to the kerb and it will be collected. Keep damaged whiteware
apart from other items because it will be collected
separately.
These collections are for flood-damaged items
only, it is not a chance to clear out the garage or back
garden!
If you live on the Thames Coast Road and you
think access for a removal truck will be difficult, leave
your flood-damaged items on the kerbside and the contractor
collecting the items will arrange access with the NZTA
contractors working on the road.
The Thames Refuse
Transfer Station (RTS) at 102 Burke St will also accept
flood-damaged items free of charge. The station's hours are
at www.tcdc.govt.nz/rts.
Septic
tanks
Some septic tanks and
disposal fields may have been filled with a large volume of
sand and debris, which will need to cleared or sucked out.
If this has occurred at your property and you are unable to
adequately flush toilets or you believe it is coming the
surface in your property or your neighbours, it needs
addressing urgently. Arrange for your septic tank to be
cleared, (either yourself or through your insurance
company).
There may also have been a number of septic
tanks that were inundated by sea water. The salt in the sea
water will kill the natural bacteria that works away in your
septic tanks, so they may not function correctly for a
while. However, as long as your toilets can flush, this
isn’t an urgent problem. The tanks will generally sort
themselves out once they are back in use.
EQC
cover
Some people may be eligible to launch a
claim with EQC as well as their private insurer.
• If
you have flood damage to the land around your home,
including retaining walls that support the land (not walls
that are landscape features only) then contact EQC. EQC does
not cover flood damage to your house or its
contents.
• To get EQC cover, you need to have a home
or contents insurance policy that includes fire protection
with a private insurance company when the natural disaster
damage occurred.
• While it may speed up the process
if you make a claim quickly, you have three months from the
date of the damage to lodge your claim.
• EQC
recommends launching a claim with them at the same time as
you lodge a claim with your private insurer.
• You can
make a claim online on the EQC website or call EQC on 0800
326 243.
Our Civil Defence Controller Garry Towler will
continue to give daily video updates via live streaming on
Facebook. Here's his latest from
today.
Feeling stressed?
One of
the biggest parts of an "event" like last week's storm is
the emotional and mental stress people experience, whether
they realise it or not. Sometimes it can take weeks before
issues start bubbling to the surface. If you feel like you
need help, contact your GP in the first instance.
If you
don't feel able to talk to your GP, we have some resources
at Council that we can pass on to you. Contact us on 07 868
0200; email: customer.services@tcdc.govt.nz;
or come into one of our offices.
Or, check out the fact
sheets on the Civil Defence website.
Putting Friday's storm tide into
context
Last Friday morning's storm tide was
a conjunction of a high "king" tide, low atmospheric
pressure and strong northerly winds that increased the water
level in the Firth of Thames and trapped it with no place to
go.
Waikato Regional Council's (WRC) Flood Coordinator
Rick Liefting says:
Predicting the exact impact of the
storm tide and waves is difficult to quantify with available
information, but we knew would likely impact on low lying
coastal areas and information was issued by WRC and councils
to that effect.
The actual impact of the
storm tide surpassed expectations from WRC and councils.
The water levels recorded at the Tararu
Tide Gauge on the Thames coast reached 2.8m (Tararu Vertical
Datum), some 1m above a ‘normal’ spring tide. The
additional effects of waves along the coast increased the
impact on infrastructure and property.
The water levels
recorded at the Tararu Tide Gauge on the Thames coast
reached 2.8m, some 1m above a ‘normal’ spring tide. The
additional effects of waves along the coast increased the
impact on infrastructure and
property.
Analysis of the Tararu Tide Gauge
from 1990 to 2015 showed that the previous highest water
level recorded was 2.4m in 1995. So the water levels on
Friday morning were estimated to have been an excess of a
0.5 % AEP (Annual Exceedance Probability) or 200 year ARI
(Annual Exceedance Interval).
The largest
historical storm tide event on the Firth of Thames was in
1938 where the nominal water level was estimated at 3.0m,
which inundated much of the Hauraki Plains. The 3.0m water
level has been adopted by WRC as a 1% AEP (100 year ARI)
event that is used in design of stopbanks
etc.
While the inundation along the
Kaiaua/Miranda area was significant, the impacts on the
Hauraki Plains would likely to have been similar to those
from 1938, if it was not for the substantial flood
protection schemes provided by WRC and
HDC.
The recent events have identified
further analysis is required on extreme water levels in the
Firth of Thames to ensure that design parameters are still
applicable for current and future development and
infrastructure.
Stay updated on weather warnings
Whenever we get a warning
from MetService about bad weather coming our way, we pass on
those alerts on all our communications channels.
These
updates are available on the News section on the front page
of our website, in our email newsletters and on
our Facebook and Twitter
(@OurCoromandel) accounts.
Last week we published our
first news of the storm brewing over the Tasman Sea on
Tuesday 2 January.
Since then we've published 20 updates
on all our communications channels about the storm, both
before and after Friday morning's damaging high tide, with
what we knew about the incoming weather front coinciding
with very high tides, the response to this weather, and
about the ongoing recovery efforts.
These updates have
reached tens of thousands of individuals.
Thank you very
much to everyone for their feedback on our communications -
both positive and negative. The overwhelming majority of
comments have been positive.
To stay up to date on
weather events and emergency preparedness, follow us on all
the above Council channels, plus you can download the
Red Cross Hazards app, stay
tuned to local radio in your area, visit the Waikato Civil website for
information on how to plan for an emergency , and get
weather updates from MetService.