A large-scale rebuild is underway for several kilometres of Hawke's Bay stop banks that were breached during Cyclone Gabrielle.
The flood defences were overwhelmed in 30 locations, leaving officials to consider how to protect the region in the future.
A grassy mound is the main line of defence when the Tutaikuri river floods, and now it’s got a hole in it.
Some residents in Omahu felt the full force of the stop bank eroding in the recent cyclone.
Hawke’s Bay resident Taranaki Hokianga said the community is still in shock.
“Devastating, just coming over the bridge when it happened the river raging it was quite scary, like a real airily feeling, just never seen anything like it, to be honest," he told 1News.
“The waters just ravaged everything, so powerful; you look around. It's just a big rubbish dump around here now; it’s really sad.
“The people from here love this area and would do anything to stay here, so I reckon they'll just think of better ways to live here and still reside here."
The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has around 160 contractors working to repair six kilometres worth of stop bank breaches rapidly.
Regional Council group controller Chris Dolley said they are in a rapid rebuild stage.
"It’s a four-stage process; the first process is rapidly put in a bund that will protect the community from any small flows," Dolley said.
The new temporary bund will eventually be wrapped in plastic for further protection until the original bank is repaired, just one of 13 different sites in operation.
Across the region, there were 30 stop-bank breaches, and many sections were damaged.
Dolley says the weather event exceeded the design capacity.
“We had in some locations twice as much rainfall as forecast, and the event clearly exceeded the design capacity of our scheme; just like a bridge or a road is designed for a certain function, so too is our flood protection scheme, what we want to understand going forward is how we can improve that scheme, we know we are going to get more with climate change," he said.
“We need to look at appropriate land use, what we do in some hazardous areas, and what we shouldn't do, and also understand the limitations of that protection, so there's a suite of solutions; stop banks, and engineered solutions are part of that suite, but they're not the only solution."
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