Wairoa is one of the towns hardest hit by Cyclone Gabrielle, and one of its vital road links has been cut off for at least the next 12 months, TVNZ Chief Correspondent John Campbell reports.
Road access has been restored northwards towards Gisborne, but southwards access to the rest of Hawke's Bay remains off the cards for some time ahead.
The town's deputy mayor Denise Eaglesome-Karekare said forestry's taniwha had struck again.
"Those bridges shouldn't have been wiped out. Water can't do that on its own. It's got to have something in that water to take out strong bridges like that," she said.
She said Takitimu Marae in Wairoa was "in the shit literally", as silt from the floodwaters had contaminated their land.
The deputy mayor said she had been attending Civil Defence meetings and briefings since the flood happened, and what she had heard was not encouraging.
"At best, 12 months," she said, referring to how long it would take to restore southbound access to State Highway 2.
That means a long detour for people travelling south or north for work, health or family reasons.
It also means a huge disruption for dairy farmers like Paul Morunga, who has dumped about 30,000 litres of milk since no tankers can reach his farm. He said it was the first time his family could recall a milking shed quiet so early in the year.
Fonterra will still pay him and other farmers, but it's for milk that they can't export.
The deputy mayor told John Campbell that Wairoa was fundamentally a town that looked towards Hawke's Bay for its essential health services.
"We're connected to Hawkes Bay for our hospital, medical services, and specialist visits.
"We're connected to Hawke's Bay," Eaglesome-Karekare said.
Waka Kotahi's Central North Island regional manager for maintenance and operations, Jaclyn Hankin, told 1News in a statement that "it's too early to speculate on the potential cost of repairs."
"Restoring the network is going to take time," she said.
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