Craig Little: Wairoa Mayor on the damage to the town and the recovery funding boost

Wairoa's getting another funding boost of half-a-million-dollars for recovery from last week's major flooding. 

More than 100 properties were badly damaged in a district still recovering from last year's Cyclone Gabrielle. 

It brings Mayoral Relief Funding allocated so far to $600 thousand. 

Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell says it'll go into pressing and immediate needs in the community. 

He says it'll ensure ongoing support for clean-up costs such as drying houses and removing damaged materials from homes. 

Wairoa Mayor Craig Little told Kerre Woodham that while $500k won’t go far, at the end of the day, the government didn’t create this mess. 

He said that this was not a big rain event, and the regional council need to come out and apologise, otherwise they’re going nowhere. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Kerry Wooden Morning's podcast from News Talk.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Said.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
Be said to Helen this morning, what's happening in Wide
or the rain stopped? But what kind of what kind
of recovery do they need to do? And she said,
funny should mention that Craig Little was on seven sharp
last night and said that you know, they needed they
needed funding and they needed money to do the work

(00:31):
that they need to do that they know how to do.
And now we have an announcement from the government providing
a further half million to the Wide or Meral Relief Fund.
Craig Little joins me, Now, very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Oh, good morning, how are you. God?

Speaker 3 (00:46):
This would be welcome news.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
And it's great, you know it's look, Mark's been in
contact with us all time. It is good. Five hundred
k won't go far, you know, probably could be a
hundred tapert home. These the ones that uninsured. But I
had to start. But at the end of the day,
the government, you know, they didn't this mess.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
No, So yeah, yeah, you were talking about the dridging
or the digging out of the of the or the
management really of the Wide or river bar. That's where
you think the problem lies and will continue to lie
if nothing's done about it.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Look, look why we've done it success for over a
couple hundred years. In the last three or four years,
we're having all these issues here and people go, oh,
climate change, This was not a big rain event. Yeah,
you know, and that's as simple as that. And the
Regial Council need to come out and apologize otherwise, you know,
we're going nowhere.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
So what do you want to see happen? That they
hand over the management of the bar to you, to.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
The White Orchid to the locals, which so we've got that.
We've got to work out how we're going to do
this moving forward, and then then we've got to work
out how we're going to fix what happened. Yeah, you know,
I can't move forward until we fix it. And we've
still got eighty homes, which has nothing to do with
this event, So we don't want to take the focus
of getting people back into eighty homes across the way

(02:02):
as well. Man, it's a big job, that huge job.
Like we're a little council where we're you know, we're
only about nine a half thousand people and it's just
a mountain ahead of us and we have sixty starts,
sixty or so staff, and you know, we need help.
And you know, and the rec Council's got millions of

(02:23):
dollars invested down in buildings in Wellington, treasure chests everywhere.
We don't have that. And I'm sorry, but I won't
be you know, I'm getting pretty grumpy now because nothing's
coming our way and people need to start forgetting they
that they have the elected members like we do, which
I can all can just praise my elected members, but

(02:43):
the elected members need to start standing up and actually
for our community.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
I mean, you wouldn't be able to do to do
the job, to do the cleanup, to start planning without
your community, without the community stepping up and looking after itself.
But you can only look after yourself up to a
certain point, right.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
We would never have happened without our community looking after ourselves.
On that two on mate down here, Guy good McCarney,
he's lost both his daughters have been flooded in it
and it wasn't for his fino, they wouldn't they wouldn't
have had any helps up to date. Yeah, hey, I'm
going to go because okay, yep.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
All right, Craig, thank you very much for your time.
Craig Little, the wide or mayor somebody says, is there's
somewhere that the public can donate to give money to
the folk and wide or Yes, there is. There is
a give a Little fund which is standing at one
hundred and thirty five thousand right now. This is for
the June twenty four flood, the second significant flooding impact event.

(03:44):
It's the mayor Relief Fund to be distributed to locals,
to the wide or people. So it's a one hundred
and thirty six thousand, one and forty two has been
donated and that's where you can safely donate without it
going to great big organizations. News Talk s B. While

(04:06):
I'm busting my bulls to pay my insurance, these people
are getting a hand out. Some of them couldn't get
reinsured after the flood, you know, like it was impossible
for them to try and get reinsurance until something happened.
And that's what he's talking about. He said, it needs
to change. They need to manage the river and the

(04:26):
bar better and then there won't be the continual flooding.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
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