Deborah Rhodes/Supplied
Collingwood dairy farmer Deborah Rhodes’ paddocks were flooded after an “atmospheric river” hit the top of the South Island on Wednesday. The flooding receded, before returning amid another bout of heavy rain – but Golden Bay residents said on Sunday they felt “very lucky” the damage wasn’t worse.
It was “a nightmare” to lose phone and internet access – along with the road to Tākaka on Saturday, Collingwood dairy farmer Deborah Rhodes said.
She couldn’t communicate with her husband across the flood-hit farm next to the Aorere River, after a fibre cable into Golden Bay was “blown out by a major landslide”, she said.
Being unable to check reports about rainfall and river levels online amid a second heavy rain warning left them feeling “pretty vulnerable”, she said.
But water that flooded paddocks on their farm twice since Wednesday – coming within 50cm of entering the house – had receded fairly quickly, with lines of communication restored on Sunday.
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Supplied
Footage of the flooding by the Nelson Marlborough Rescue Helicopter Trust.
The only road between Collingwood and Tākaka had also partially reopened, easing concerns about the trucking of surplus calves in the middle of calving.
The couple had managed to keep milking cows as they normally did, once a day, and get the cattle onto the paddock in between the bouts of flooding, with no stock losses, she said.
It was hard work repairing fences, but a visit from Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor to check things were okay on Saturday afternoon made them feel supported, she said.
Deborah Rhodes/Supplied
Flood water surrounded the Rhodes’ Collingwood farm near the Aorere River on Wednesday, and receded before another bout of heavy rain flooded paddocks again on Saturday.
“It’s the psychological support for farmers that makes a huge difference, as the impact of climate change and devastation can be extremely lonely.”
Chairperson of the Golden Bay Community Board, Abbie Langford, said water that flooded paddocks on her Kotinga farm south of Tākaka had receded as quickly as it had arrived.
“I just feel like this time we have been really lucky.”
Deborah Rhodes/Supplied
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor, right, paid Golden Bay dairy farmer Deborah Rhodes and her husband Tim a visit as they cleaned up their flood-hit property in Collingwood on Saturday afternoon.
Fulton Hogan trucks were out and about across Golden Bay, making roads passable, and fire crews were out pumping and draining, Langford said.
“Obviously there’s been damage, but all I see on the community noticeboard now is people offering to help other people.
”Our road, it’s got some debris over it and that’s been cleared to the side, and it’s lifted the tar-seal … [the cleanup] is definitely under way.”
Meanwhile, Langford and her husband were amazed that one of their cows had turned up unscathed at another farm around 3km away.
They assumed the animal had been washed down the Tākaka River.
Abbie Langford/Supplied
A cow baffles farmers after turning up at another farm, 3km away, in the middle of a state of emergency in flood-hit Golden Bay. They assume she washed down the swollen Tākaka River on Saturday when the region was under an “orange” heavy rain warning.
A farmer near Pupu Springs put a message on social media on Saturday, saying he had an extra cow, Langford said.
“I’m not entirely sure how else she would have ended up there … she wouldn’t have walked, she wouldn’t have left her group.
“To walk there [Pupu] she still would have had to cross a river and walk through town.
“But then I’m thinking, how did she survive that?”
The MetService put out another rain watch for Tasman district on Sunday afternoon.
A period of heavy rain was possible from 1pm-10pm on Monday across Tasman west of Motueka, it said.
“A rainfall accumulation of 30 to 50mm is likely during this time. Although it wouldn’t meet the normal heavy rain watch criteria, given the rain that has fallen in the last a few days, a watch is now in force for this situation.”
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