With the first phase of the P\u014drangahau Flood Resilience Project now well into construction, the 75 properties met the test for the Category 2C label to come off.<\/p>\n
Regional Council staff hand-delivered letters advising property owners of the change last Thursday.<\/p>\n
HBRC chairwoman Sophie Siers said the decision gave the P\u014drangahau community a clearer path forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is so much more than just a technical change. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor the people who have been living with Category 2C beside their address, it is a letter that says the ground is firmer now, and you can plan for a future here in P\u014drangahau.\u201d <\/p>\n
She said Cyclone Gabrielle took many things from Hawke\u2019s Bay, including lives, homes, land, infrastructure, and livelihoods.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt also took something less visible: people\u2019s sense of safety. That unconscious trust in the world around you. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision helps give some of that back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Siers said the decision should not be mistaken for a promise that the river will never flood again.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo flood scheme can remove every risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut for these properties, the risk has been reduced to a level where the Category 2C label is no longer needed and stronger protection is now being put in place.\u201d<\/p>\n
For HBRC councillor Thompson Hokianga, the decision lands close to home.<\/p>\n
He grew up in P\u014drangahau and has enduring whakapapa ties to the whenua and to Rongomaraeroa Marae.<\/p>\n
\u201cP\u014drangahau is a place that raised me, a landscape I know intimately, and a community I am accountable to, not only as an elected councillor but through whakapapa.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said after the cyclone, there was the visible damage you could see, the silt, the water marks, the ruined fences, the mess. <\/p>\n
\u201cBeneath that was the worry about what it would mean for homes, for whenua, and for the future of the town.<\/p>\n
Hokianga said that having that category lifted for these homes was huge. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt helps put that future back on solid ground, recorded in writing and made visible on the whenua through the stopbanks and flood walls.\u201c<\/p>\n
The $14.6 million P\u014drangahau Flood Resilience Project is part of Hawke\u2019s Bay\u2019s $256.5 million North Island Weather Events (NIWE) resilience programme.<\/p>\n
It is a regionwide investment in stronger flood protection after Cyclone Gabrielle. <\/p>\n
The project is funded 72% by the Government, with that contribution managed by National Infrastructure Funding and Financing (NIFF) through the Government\u2019s Cyclone Recovery Fund. <\/p>\n
The remaining 28% is funded by HBRC. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the first phase of the P\u014drangahau Flood Resilience Project now well into construction, the 75 properties met…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[124819,85710,82959,806,46729,14227,33959,24925,2082,33960,6800,2250,111,43,139,69,146954,68666,3263,5196,12879,7192,255727],"class_list":["post-514782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2c","tag-85710","tag-advances","tag-as","tag-carry","tag-category","tag-cyclone","tag-flood","tag-for","tag-gabrielle","tag-homes","tag-longer","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-postcyclone","tag-prangahau","tag-project","tag-removed","tag-resilience","tag-risk","tag-seventyfive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514782","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=514782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}