Voices from the floodplain
It was the 27th of June when heavy rain began in the Tasman District, gradually saturating the ground and causing slips & flooding around the Moutere. Little did we know that this was the start of prolonged, unyielding rainfall which caused the Motueka & Wai Iti Rivers to rise to 100yr flood levels. The river, so often a quiet neighbour, began to push outwards, nudging fences & creeping across roads until it was in full flood, breaching stop banks and past records & smashing everything in its path. Not once, but twice within two weeks, our community was devastated by the river which runs through our centre.
At first, no one thought that this was going to be a huge event, no one anticipated the speed at which the water would rise and rise and rise.
Kaisami Beatson (15) of Ngatimoti said ‘We didn’t think we’d have to go up to Auntys. Dad and Mum took the cars up and then Mum couldn’t get back down and all the water started coming through the driveway and started flooding. We grabbed the cat and Dad ran back through the water to grab us kids and chuck us in the ute.’
Kaisami told me that his grandfather Guthrie had worked for the old Catchment Board and witnessed the last big flood in 1983, so he was the family expert when it came to the river. ‘He kept saying it should be right, it should start to ease off, but it didn’t.’
He recalled the family watching over their farm from his Aunty Jen’s place, especially three rams on an ever decreasing island of dry land in a paddock which had never flooded before. Grandad, Dad, Warwick and Isla (17) went back for them on the tractor, the river was so swift between the shed and the house that Dad was struggling to stand and water was lapping over the bonnet of the tractor but they managed to get the rams to higher ground.
‘It was worrying, especially watching Grandpa who is 80, I was nervous and scared.’
Jess King from Westbank Road in Pangatōtara said that the moment everything changed was when the family saw their baleage start moving and the hay fall over and be swiftly taken by the river. Then the mad panic of getting stock out of paddocks to higher ground again set in. The second time around, the water came onto the King’s property from the hillside above as well as the rising river below and the family had to attempt to clear culverts and dig drains in the pouring rain, absolutely soaked through for hours as day turned to night.
There are many harrowing stories, of houses inundated or washed away entirely, of families struggling through floodwaters, of stock and pets lost and of paddocks, roads and infrastructure destroyed.
In the immediate aftermath of the first flood, as our community struggled with the new reality of an altered landscape, covered in mud and silt and laced with rubbish and woody debris, feelings ranged from disbelief to devastation, huge overwhelm and many tears. There was however a motivation to clean up and sort things out which, coupled with neighbourly and community support, meant that families felt positive and had purpose.
It was a very different situation after the second flood. The landscape was still altered, the roads even more of a state and many more landslides dotted the hills resulting in more silt in the floodplain and uninhabitable houses. It was the people who were changed this time:
‘We were so sad as we had already done so much work. Now we were back to square one.’
‘To have done so much, salvaged so much and then to lose it all again and more was completely gutting. We were exhausted.’
‘The second time we had more of a realisation of how badly things could go wrong. We knew that for some it would be even worse than the first time. We were lucky that our house was only flooded once.’
So what did the community do? They came out in droves to help those affected. Volunteers arrived with gumboots, gloves and wheelbarrows, clearing debris from fence lines and paddocks, shovelling silt out of houses and sheds. All those interviewed for this story were completely overwhelmed by and hugely grateful for the support they received from Student Volunteer Army (SVA), Rapid Response Team (RRT), Repost, Motueka Flood Relief Hub, Ali and Ngātīmoti School and Motueka High School (MHS) Food Hub amongst many others.
Kaisami told me that at his Aunty’s house, they didn’t have much food for the extra eight people and it was amazing when RRT brought water and food. Carol Fowler from the MHS Food Hub brought boxes of bagels, frozen meals and baking so that the Beatsons could feed everyone who had volunteered to help them. Kathryn Beatson commented that it would have been completely soul destroying without help from so many:
‘Horrible times bring amazing times with people coming out of the woodwork to lend a hand. We have lots of very kind people in our neighbourhood.’
Jess was proud of her Dad Alan:
‘He helped everyone even though he was impacted too! He dug out the neighbours driveway and got her car running. It was a saviour that he had bought a digger and could get things done quickly.’
When asked about their relationship with the river, all of the interviewees said that the floods haven’t changed how they feel about the Motueka River or living in the Valley!
‘It’s just Mother Nature. It’s our home, I grew up here and I don’t want to move, no matter where you go bad things can happen.’
‘It made me love the river more, it was just doing what it should! If it wasn’t for all of the pain, suffering and trauma, I would have been marvelling at its magnificence!’
‘I never want to move. This is a great place to grow up with the river and the farm.’
There are some feelings that the Council could have done more to reduce the impact of the flood and that locals’ opinions have been dismissed. I also heard concerns about the geological composition of the Valley, how it’s not well suited to forestry and a desire for more planting of natives. Hopes rest on better weather predictions and more timely warnings with a feeling that the ball was definitely dropped this time around.
The biggest positives and greatest healings so far have come from each other. As Jess said,
‘Our community saved us, what they achieved is mind-blowing!’
Now there is impetus for community involvement in planning next steps. Kate commented that ‘Working with nature rather than fighting it helps you feel resilient’ and Jess expressed displeasure in ‘being told to suck eggs because they think we know nothing!’ The recent MCC Rivers Hui has opened the conversation and encouraged residents to get involved in working towards a better strategy for managing our flood plain.
The Beatsons, like many, are still waiting on insurance decisions and others in the Catchment face months or even years of rebuilding. The road ahead may be long but it will be walked together by a community who have deepened their connections to each other and shown resilience in the face of disaster. This Summer, we will still gather at wherever the accessible, safe swimming holes turn out to be, we will join community plantings to stitch the riverbanks back together and we will do it together.
Written by Lucy Maxwell with Kaisami & Kathryn Beatson, Kate Radloff & Jess King.