The Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has declared an adverse event for the flood-hit Southland and Otago regions, unlocking Government support for farmers and growers.
Hundreds of people have been evacuated from homes and farms in the Gore, Mataura and Wyndham regions today due to flooding.
“Widespread flooding has resulted in severe disruption, with many people evacuated from their homes and many farms being affected by flood waters. It’s putting pressure on our farmers, and this Government is committed to helping them get through”, Mr O'Connor said.
"I've been on the ground in Southland today and based on what I’ve seen and the advice I’ve received from Ministry for Primary Industries field staff, the scale of impact is beyond the communities’ ability to cope.
“This unlocks extra funding of $100,000 for the Rural Support Trusts to help speed up the recovery of farming businesses, including pastoral support and specialist technical advice.
“When visiting today I stopped in to see the Civil Defence Emergency Management staff in the Emergency Operations Centre. I was really impressed with how they are coordinating what is a really big and rapidly moving operation to help people, animals and property across Southland.
“They’re working around the clock, as are Police, Fire and Emergency NZ, NZ Defence Force and National Emergency Management Agency personnel. The affected communities are being really well served,” Mr Oconnor said.
Gore residents to return home, no evidence of ammonia leaks in Mataura.
Civil Defence Controller for Southland, Angus McKay said the township of Gore will be opened up for the 2400 evacuated residents to return to their homes from 6.00pm tonight.
Several hundred residents from Mataura and Wyndham remain in a state of evacuation.
Mr McKay said he was aware local residents were concerned about ammonia leaks at the paper mill in Mataura but there was no evidence to support this.
He said the mill had been made as watertight as possible.
“We did all the work we could this morning to make it as waterproof as possible,” he said.
He acknowledged there would have been some water make its way inside the mill.
“We have had no issues with ammonia, we’ve got no evidence that we’ve had any ammonia discharged from that paper mill,” he said.
He said there will be an assessement undertaken of “what’s happened in the paper mill” along with measurements of “is there anything that we need to worry about”.
He said this will be done prior to residents returning to the area.
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