Waipā District Council phones have been running hot after ex-Tropical Cyclone Dovi left a slew of damage to trees and power lines in the weekend storm.
Many areas of New Zealand had reports of flooding, slips, downed trees, road closures and disruption to power and cellphone services, but damage in the Waipā was mainly limited to trees damaged after the extraordinary weekend winds said Council’s acting Community Services Manager, Brad Ward.
“We haven’t experienced significant wind of this direction like this in the Waipā for about three years, so we’ve seen amplified damage to what we might normally expect during a weather event.”
Council had received 50 phone calls since Sunday morning, with Council’s tree maintenance contractor Treescape more than trebling that in the same period.
Treescape fielded 176 calls on Sunday from customers seeking assistance with their damaged trees and the crew has been busy assessing, priortising and undertaking the clean up.
“Due to the extent of the clean up, the work will be undertaken as a matter of priority with the most urgent work being done first to make trees safe, and then to deal with the debris afterwards,” Ward added.
Ward noted that although it’s to early to know all the costs of the clean up at this early stage, the cost was already covered within Council’s existing tree maintenance budget for emergency work.
“I expect the cost to be between $20,000-$30,000 just to get the trees safe and cleaned up. There is likely to be subsequent costs associated with this event such as stump grinding and re-planting as appropriate.”
In terms of road maintenance, Manager – Transportation Bryan Hudson said the damage was relatively minor considering the size of the storm.
“Most of our issues were relating to tree debris on roads and street clean ups required but we had no water damage issues. Two roads were closed by relatively minor tree falls on Sunday but our crew quickly cleaned that up on the same day,” Hudson said.
Council has reported some damage to Te Awa River Ride along the river banks west of Cambridge, where tree branches have damaged boardwalk hand rails but this was not significant.
Ward reminded residents who have a protected tree on their land that if their tree(s) require emergency maintenance, they may be able to access the Protected Tree Fund, administered by Council.
The fund was set up to assist landowners for maintenance and inspection costs of protected trees under certain criteria.
“Where there is immediate threat to people or property, Council can also consider retrospective applications to the Protected Tree Fund, if residents need to undertake emergency work to rectify tree safety as defined by the District Plan – but only under strict criteria. I would encourage those landowners with protected trees to check them out, and contact us if they have any questions about the process” Ward added.
For details about protected trees, the approved supplier list and fund criteria, head to www.waipadc.govt.nz/protectedtrees.
