Follow-up contacts

Members of the welfare team have attempted to contact all occupants of flood-damaged dwellings. If you have not been contacted and would like to arrange a meeting, call Chris King-Hazel on 306 0500 or 027 952 1060 during office hours. The welfare team can assist with Civil Defence registrations, which will simplify the lodging of insurance claims, plus advise on assistance available from other agencies.

If you have any health concerns as a result of the flooding, contact Healthline on 0800 611 116. For emergency housing or financial assistance, contact WINZ on 0800 559 009, and Victim Support can be contacted on 0800 842 846.

Clean-up

Skips were available in the worst affected areas so that damaged goods and other debris could be disposed of. These have now been removed, and you should contact your insurer if you have any further significant items to dispose of. Any silt removed from houses, house surrounds or driveways can be placed on the roadside berm for removal by our contractors over the next week.

To speed up the drying process, it is important that there is sufficient airflow beneath houses in areas that have experienced flooding. Make sure that silt and flood debris is cleared from underfloor vents, and that there is sufficient airflow between silt deposits and subfloor framing. Generally, low levels of silt can be left in place under houses, but if you are unsure, contact the Council to have your situation assessed.

For any other advice or concerns, ring the Council on 306 0500 and leave your details. A staff member will get back to you as quickly as possible.

Restoring flood-damaged houses

Now that flood water has subsided, it is important to clean up, drain and dry out flood-damaged houses as quickly as possible. This work may be covered as part of an insurance claim, in which case you should share the following advice with the contractor undertaking your repairs.

• Take photos of the damage before starting clean-up work, including any individual items that will be included in insurance claims.
• Disconnect power and do not reconnect until wall linings have been removed, silt is cleared from framing cavities, walls have dried, and a registered electrician has approved reconnection.
• Remove wet items from flooded buildings, including floor coverings, furniture, bedding, etc.
• Items that have been exposed to sewage or sewage contaminated water needs to be disposed of.
• If water has flooded the home or buildings, then the usual approach to repairs is to remove wall linings – generally, one nog above the closest nog to the water line.
• Remove water and silt from the wall cavities and framing. If the floodwater was contaminated with sewage, use household disinfectant at the most potent dilution, according to the directions on the label, to clean the wall cavities and then leave to dry.
• Remove mud and silt from within and under the dwelling wherever possible.
• Open all windows and doors during the day to promote drying.
• If you are replacing wall linings that have been flood-affected, ensure that the interior structures are sufficiently dry before recladding. A free building inspection can be arranged with the Council to assist you with this. Replacing the wall linings when the timber framing has not dried out sufficiently can lead to future mould and damp problems, which can be harmful to your health.

The Council is offering a free building consent process to assist the owners of flood-damaged dwellings. Ring our Customer Services team on 306 0500 for information about this service.

The Building Act allows damaged wall linings to be replaced with a comparable product without a building consent, but also requires that any building work must comply with the building code. Our experience indicates that repairs undertaken without a building consent can create problems for homeowners when they wish to sell their property at some stage in the future. This revolves around the uncertainty that may be created for prospective purchasers if no code compliance certificate has been issued for the repair work. A code compliance certificate is only issued when a building consent has been granted for the repair.

Gardens and surrounds

If your property has been flooded, it is possible that the water has been contaminated with sewage-infiltrated storm water. If that is the case, remove debris from gardens, children’s play areas, sand pits, and lawns. Leave the gardens to dry out - UV light has good disinfection properties, so two or more days of strong sunshine can do a lot to reduce bacteria numbers and sanitise your gardens.

If odour is an issue, spreading disinfectant is an effective way of sanitising the ground surface. This can be collected from our Operations Business Unit, located behind the Te Tahi Street Recycling Centre.

If dealing with bark gardens, dry the bark out by spreading it out and exposing it to sunlight. If the floodwater was heavily contaminated, it may be advisable to replace the bark, especially for children’s playgrounds. Children’s sand-pits may need new sand if they have been flooded with contaminated water.

Vegetable Gardens and Food Crops

If your vegetable garden has been flooded, remove any obvious debris and let the vegetable beds dry out in the sun. It is advised that any ripened fruit and vegetables which have been covered by contaminated flood water be discarded. Vegetables ripening after clean up may be harvested, provided they are cooked thoroughly before you eat them.

Rates Remission

Council staff will contact ratepayers whose properties have been flooded to an extent that they are unable to be occupied, to inform them about our rates remission policy. 

The objective of the rates remission policy is to permit the Council to postpone and/or remit part or whole of the rates assessed on any land that has been detrimentally affected by erosion, subsidence, submersion, or other natural calamity.

The conditions and criteria are:

1. Land is detrimentally affected to an extent that it is unable to support the activity for which it was used immediately prior to the calamity (e.g. a residence or commercial building that is unable to be occupied as a result of a natural calamity).
2. Where it is considered that the detrimental effect is likely to be of a temporary nature, the rates will be postponed for the duration of that period, or such longer period as may be determined in any particular case.
3. Applications must be made in writing within 12 months of the date on which the event occurred.

In effect, this would mean that anyone who cannot live in their home or operate their business as a result of flood damage can apply to have their rates remitted for the period that they are unable to use their property.