7 January 2018
Media: Rotorua Daily Post
Topic: Storm follow-up
Enquiry
Information sought for for storm update article:
- How has the clean-up gone so far in general?
- Have there been areas that needed to be focused on or have taken a fair bit of time? If so, where and why?
- How much clean-up work is there still to do around the city? Is there an expected time frame that it will be done by?
- How many contractors are out and about working on the clean-up?
- Has the continued not so great weather been a hindrance?
Response
Clean-up following the storm that affected Rotorua on Friday and Saturday will continue during the next week.
Continued care is urged on roads throughout the Rotorua district in the coming days due to the ongoing risk of slips and treefalls due to ground saturation.
Forest users should also take extra care with tracks affected by fallen trees and debris and risk of further treefalls. Work to clear tracks will be ongoing.
The winds posed the biggest problem, keeping crews busy dealing with fallen trees and debris throughout the city and district and prompting some temporary road closures. In some places fallen trees were cleared enough so that roads could remain open but some road shoulders remain closed and clean-up of these areas will be completed during the upcoming week.
Fulton Hogan road crews dealt with 37 reported fallen trees and/or branches on Friday. They were stood down over the weekend other than to deal with new jobs and responded to two new reported treefalls, on Te Waerenga Rd and in Rerewhakaaitu, during the weekend. An excavator was needed to clear a large fallen tree in Whittaker Road, Koutu. The road crews will be working throughout the district during the next week to clear away remaining debris and treefalls from roadsides and to check the roading network.
Generators had to be used to run 10 local sewerage pump stations in the Okere, Otaramarae, Okawa Bay, Tikitere and Mourea areas overnight Friday but all systems were operating as normal again from about 9am Saturday when power was restored to affected areas. While inflows were greater than normal wastewater and stormwater systems coped well during the storm. A small sewer overflow from a manhole on Mataikotare Rd on Saturday, which occurred due to power outages, was cleaned up and posed no environmental risk.
There was some damage to paving at the lakefront but the extent of that has yet to be assessed.
About 90 calls regarding storm-related issues were received by Rotorua Lakes Council's after-hours call centre on Friday and Saturday.
Call the council on 07-3484199 any time to report fallen trees, debris or slips
________________________________________________________________________________________
Media: Newshub
Topic: Treefall fatality
Enquiry
Reporter sought to clarify a few points with regards to the fallen oak tree in Rotorua - particularly regarding the the concerns over it and the work the council undertook to stabilise it.
Response
Please see THIS LINK on Council's website for a statement regarding this.
In light of the fact there will be an investigation there is nothing further to add at this time.
