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March 25, 2022
Covid complicates Tairāwhiti disaster response
Waatea Team
Posted On March 25, 2022
Download AudioA Civil Defence officer says the response to this week’s flooding has been complicated by the wave of Covid-19 sweeping through the communities.
Many parts of Tairāwhiti recorded over 400 mm of rainfall this week, and at Te Puia Springs it was a record 530mm.
The region remains in a state of emergency.
NZ Defence Force, Te Rūnanganui o Ngāti Porou and Civil Defence have joined forced to get food and medicines up the Coast in a uni-mog.
Tolaga Bay Civil Defence officer Nori Parata says the presence of Covid in the community including in some large households meant evacuation plans had to be revised.
“Running alongside the civil defence team here in Uawa we also have the Uawa Community Response Team whose primary focus is the virus and it was an absolute godsend to be working with them and they came up with solutions for that if we had to isolate these families that had positive cases,” she says.
Ms Parata, who’s also the principal of Tolaga Bay Area School, says the school reopened today to give tamariki some routine and help with people’s mental well being.
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