Kerre Woodham: We can't keep spending billions every couple of years on disaster recovery

The process of rebuilding communities that have taken a hit during the weather events of this summer is going to be a long and arduous process. Tough decisions will have to be made. Personal decisions will have to be made.

Do you want to go back and live in the place where your worst nightmare occurred?

I’m thinking of the families whose homes came down in landslides, whose homes were flooded and had to flee in the middle of the night. And there are many Auckland families, and indeed Hawkes Bay families, who have been flooded not once, not twice, not three times, but more than that.

I'm thinking of the lovely lady who rang us who had been washed away in the floods, her home had been destroyed that they'd worked so hard on. Her mum was living with them - she had to go into a rest home because while they were in the process of rebuilding because it was cold and it was damp there was Polyurethane covering some of the walls so she couldn't live there. 

So all of a sudden life changed. Well, I just wonder what happened to her in these latest floods, if she's been hit again, will she want to go back there?  

A group of West Auckland homeowners, and this will not be the first group, has set up agroup asking authorities to step in and buy their flood affected properties so they can leave. 

Basically, execute the managed retreat that's being talked about, a process where people are relocated and their properties are turned into parks or reserves. The campaign is backed by Te Atatu MP Phil Twyford who's been working with families in about eight neighbourhoods since the floods of 2021.

A report found the flooding was partly due to blockages in the Waimoko stream, partly due to geography and the overpowering force of the one-in-100-year flood, which then came along in 2022.

These one in 100 year events seem to be occurring far more often! 

Should the same thing happen in Esk Valley? Should clifftop homes be part of a managed retreat, something like the King's chain, whereby the shoreline belongs to the public and you have access to the beach, the cliff tops are the same.

You get access to the spectacular views and walk along there and houses are moved back from cliff edges.

When we talk about buying back houses? That's the taxpayer. That's us trying to pay our mortgages as well as other people's homes. It might be the way to do it. I mean we are going to have to take a long hard look, not just stick a Band-Aid on communities, spend billions of dollars and then do it all again in another couple of years.  

When it comes to the managed retreats and the rebuilding of communities, do we rebuild them in the same places? Do we restore homes and put people back in there after they've been flooded once, twice, three times?

That doesn't seem like sane advice, when we're being told that the weather's only going to get worse. We're spending billions anyway, about every couple of years on natural disasters, or do people just have to cut their losses and clear out? And it's on the individual and not the community. 

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