Well mother nature really fired a shot at New Zealand this week, Cyclone Gabrielle has made her statement on the East Coast of the North Island. This week Neil Bateup Chair of the National Council of the Rural Support Trust joined me to discuss how we can help our rural communities in the aftermath of this devastating event.
New Zealand is in a national state of emergency due to the impact of cyclone Gabrielle, the 3rd in our history, the previous two occasions were during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.
There are devastating scenes through the Hawkes Bay and Gisborne regions, there has been losses of human life, and the loss of livestock, the scale of livestock losses we don’t know yet but it will be significant. This will have far reaching consequences and at this time the wellbeing and support of our people should be the main priority in all of this.
Bateup says at this stage it's probably too early to tell exactly the scale of the damage as there is still a lot of places without connectivity or access, so the scale and the long term impact on farmers and rural communities is still unfolding.
“Yeah I can talk about the Waikato first, we've had some patches that have been quite impacted and some of our Rural Support Trust team have been out there to meet with those farmers and talk to them about what their situation is and to try and help them plan forward from where they are. And we've got the 800 helpline, and we are getting a number of calls in the Waikato and we deal with those ones as they come. People are looking for sometimes just reassurance or someone to talk to or some guidance of where to go next, and so in Northland I think it's more extensive the damage up there. They have had a lot more phone calls, and they're really active trying to support the farmers in their patch. I believe that Wairarapa and Tararua have been impacted but they're, you know, once again, the Rural Support Trust is coping there. But in that Hawke's Bay Gisborne area, it's quite hard to do anything there yet, because you know there's no access and no communication.”
We are talking about significant damage, there will be significant infrastructure issues not only on farm, but farm houses, livestock and crop losses. Of course, the mental stress this will be causing will be significant. I asked him what was needed and where?
“Yeah look the best thing that can happen is actually farmer's neighbours and friends supporting one another, talking to one another. As far as the Rural Support Trust goes we're here to take calls, and we are looking to use the rest of our team around New Zealand to take phone calls and support those hard hit areas. The things that we actually need, and monetary donations are very useful, in the Canterbury floods I think there was something like $160,000 came in, in various forms to help those farmers so any monetary ones are good. There will probably be feed issues but until this things gone a bit further through the system, we don't know what feed issues will be like and what the stock issues will be like so we need to do that assessment. Just being there for somebody to talk to is really important. And so if somebody can have a chat to the neighbour over the fence and say, hey how are you getting on, maybe give them a handout. I know in the Waikato we had a couple of farms that were totally inundated in that anniversary weekend event. And within two or three hours, all of the cows had gone off those farms onto other farms, neighbours and friends took those animals. So farmers do actually support farmers pretty well in those sorts of cases. It was good that actually happened, and those farms are still not restocked, they will need re grassing. So it's quite a long term thing, but that's nothing compared to when we start looking at what's happening in Hawke's Bay and Gisborne it's quite devastating.”
The Rural Support Trust (0800 787 254) is coordinating the recovery and clean-up support and should be the first port of call for farmers wanting to register for assistance.
Feed issues experienced by some farmers in flood-affected areas will likely be exacerbated and the Ministry for Primary Industries is restarting the national Feed Working Group, which is a partnership with sector groups and specialist providers to monitor feed availability.
Industry partner Groups B+LNZ, DairyNZ and Federated Farmers are working together, along with the Rural Support Trust and the Ministry for Primary Industries, as part of the Civil Defence-led response to Cyclone Gabrielle.
If you would like to Make a donation to the Rural Support Trust, head to their website for information on how to do that.
Remember the Rural Support Trust number is 0800 787 254, they are there to help, they are confidential and have the capability and resources to guide you through these challenging times should you need it.
Listen to the podcast to hear the full story
Y Lamb
Select chart tabs
Angus Kebbell is the Producer at Tailwind Media. You can contact him here.
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.