The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is focused on developing flood resilience options for land-categorised property owners.

The Regional Council has established an engineering team, which is working with the Wairoa District Council and Tātau Tātau o Te Wairoa to engage with the community and identify flood mitigation options.

This team is seeking feedback from the community along with reviewing categorisation maps, historical data including flood history, analysing high-resolution aerial photography, photos and videos from Cyclone Gabrielle taken during and immediately after the event, and building inspection reports.

A long list of possible mitigations will be developed, and from these a preferred flood mitigation solution will be chosen and concept designs created, along with costings, to identify potential issues or pitfalls such as land access or consents.

A flood mitigation solution will be designed and built if it meets the following criteria:

• a solution that works and meets the 1 in 100-year flood protection level
• agreement in principle for land access to deliver the solution
• access to required funding.

As a result of Cyclone Gabrielle flooding, affected Wairoa properties are currently categorised as 2A. Flood mitigation will enable these properties to move into 2C and then Category 1 with an agreed form of flood control, ensuring ongoing certainty for homeowners and businesses.The engineering team will refine flood mitigation options and designs through August and September and confirm a design solution by October. 

People are encouraged to provide feedback through the Wairoa District Council or Wairoa Recovery team, recovery@wairoadc.govt.nz and this information will be passed to the Regional Council.

23 August 2023

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