MEDIA RELEASE
Horizons Regional Council

Thursday 14 July 2016

Central Government assistance for June 2015 floods

Horizons Regional Council has been successful in its first request for Central Government assistance following the June 2015 flood event.

The claim is the first of three covering repairs to river management infrastructure across the Region since the flood and amounts to approximately $480,000.

Horizons group manager river management, Ramon Strong, says the total cost of the flood damage is $4 million but the amount claimable is just under half that amount, in accordance with the rules relating to financial support for civil defence emergencies.

“Our team has been working through the detail of this first claim with Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management officials. Ultimately we expect to receive assistance for the repair and reinstatement of around 300 sites where damage occurred, with each site requiring intensive information collation to support our claim,” says Mr Strong.

“The National Civil Defence Emergency Management Plan only provides for reinstatement of like with like. In a few cases we’ve decided to effect more extensive or robust repairs which has reduced the value of the claim in some areas.”

Horizons chair, Bruce Gordon, says the claim will be welcomed by Schemes as it will allow for further urgent work to be done.

“A fair amount of work has been undertaken in the past year, including significant progress on the Lower Whanganui and Manawatu Schemes, as well as work in the Tararua District,” says Mr Gordon.

“On the Rangitikei River Scheme, the largest repair work completed to date has been major earthworks at Parewanui. That work, costing $220,000, will stop the development of a scour channel that threatens the integrity of the stopbank that in turn protects intensively farmed land on the lower floodplain, as well as the Scotts Ferry settlement.”

It is important to note too, that in some instances more extensive works have been put into place in areas such as the Manawatu River adjacent to Palmerston North where rock work has been used replacing anchored tree work.”

Mr Strong says a second claim for Central Government assistance is underway and will include repair work costs incurred up to 30 June 2016. “The quantum of the costs is expected to be in the order of $1.65 million and we expect the Government contribution to be in the order of $1 million,” he says.

It is intended that a third and final claim will be submitted in December this year, allowing for the final wrap up of all remaining flood damage costs.

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