{"id":398223,"date":"2026-04-26T08:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T08:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/398223\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T08:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T08:30:12","slug":"ohuras-state-of-emergency-lifts-but-locals-face-long-road-to-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/398223\/","title":{"rendered":"\u014chura’s state of emergency lifts, but locals face long road to recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Flooding<\/p>\n

\nFlooding at the old garage in \u014chura’s town centre.
\nPhoto: Supplied\/ Ross Perry\n<\/p>\n

Some \u014chura residents have “lost everything”, after floodwaters swept through the town a week ago, the district’s civil defence controller says.<\/p>\n

Flooding cut off the remote King Country settlement, forcing some locals to escape in chest-high waters in the early hours of last Sunday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A local state of emergency was lifted for the town this Sunday, but a week later, people were still out of their homes and dealing with “a lot of damage”, Ruapehu civil defence controller Clive Manley said.<\/p>\n

About 50 homes were damaged by flooding, he said, and six were uninhabitable.<\/p>\n

“Any individual homes affected is huge to that person, so when you’ve got water in that’s literally destroyed all your furniture, your whiteware, your belongings, it’s major for you.<\/p>\n

“That was where the six are impacted… some have lost everything and are in alternate accommodation.”<\/p>\n

Recovery efforts were now focused on getting residents back into the homes that were safe to live in. The council installed de-humidifiers to dry out sodden carpets and floors, and was pumping out septic tanks, Manley said.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

\nAn aerial view of \u014chura after the flooding.
\nPhoto: SUPPLIED\n<\/p>\n

Extensive roading works were needed to fix slips throughout the network.<\/p>\n

The council was currently assessing the cost of the damage from the deluge and recovery required, said Manley, who was also Ruapehu District Council chief executive.<\/p>\n

During the past week<\/a>, residents have scraped sludge and silt from their homes, and others have searched for animals that disappeared in the floodwaters.<\/p>\n

“[Some farms have] lost access through slips and fences damaged, and there was stock loss as well,” Manley said. “There has been loss and there has been hardship to them as well.”<\/p>\n

A mayoral relief fund was set up with $50,000 of council funds and the government was asked to contribute to that fund.<\/p>\n

\"Flooding<\/p>\n

\nSurface flooding outside the \u014chura Cosmopolitan Club.
\nPhoto: Supplied \/ Mike Crowley\n<\/p>\n

The government has been approached for comment on whether it will contribute.<\/p>\n

Manley appealed to the wider public for donations to help those whose clothes and whiteware were destroyed.<\/p>\n

The community was resilient, but had been through an “absolutely horrifying” ordeal, he said.<\/p>\n

“Just getting out and getting to a safe place was extremely harrowing for them, and we were very fortunate everyone was unharmed.<\/p>\n

“There were cars lost and there were people trapped in cars on the night, but there was no-one that was injured, which was really great.”<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flooding at the old garage in \u014chura’s town centre. Photo: Supplied\/ Ross Perry Some \u014chura residents have “lost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-398223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}