October 27, 2025 • 8 mins
Southland District Council Mayor Rob Scott gives an update after the catastrophic southern winds of last Thursday.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is a muster on Hakanui. Rob Scott is Southern
District mayor and joins us rab. Good afternoon, getting an
update and what's been going on over the past twenty
four hours. How have things been?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yeah, good essenon Andy. It's then, I guess you could
call it a productive twenty four hours in terms of
more and more of our towns and properties getting power connected,
which I can almost feel the relief in the air
the power starts to come on in some places, but
also acknowledging that we still have a few places that
are still not not connected yet. So yeah, it's tracking
(00:39):
relatively well.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Has powernack giving an indication at all by chance as
to when they hope to have everything up and running again,
or is that just like a needle in a haystack.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
It's pretty much a needle in a haystack. And when
you see some of the photos of even where where
the trees are sort of wrapped up in the power
lines as they've taken them down, and so it's quite
hard for them to predict how long it's going to
kind of take to get power in some of those areas.
But they've been going a lot faster than I thought
they would, And yeah, I mean it's tracking really well.
(01:08):
And I bumped into some of the team a couple
of days ago on the ground when I was traveling around,
and yeah, they're a positive and I think they were
appreciative of the community support of them as well, Like
no one. I mean there's a few people give them
a bit of a hard time, but on the whole, Yeah,
people are accepting of the situation and can see how
hard they're working.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Absolutely a shout out to the team for powering it
and everybody's out there doing what they're doing at the
moment right now. Regarding this government support, one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars has been allocated so far. Is that
like South and ural Support Trust funding and the like?
So how would this be allocated?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yeah, we're working out how to sort of spread that
out in the best way. And the Royal Support Trust
have been awesome. I've just come off the call with
their chair and I think that's the model on how
to run an event like this with that group pulling
together all of the kind of stakeholders and all of
the interested parties around around South and just doing it
(02:05):
in such a coordinated way. It's it's a really effective
way to do stuff. So yeah, definitely getting out there
to support them and their good work. And they're getting
out and doing sort of barbecues as when and drumming tonight.
So just putting on some food for our people that
they have been well and truly tested. So it'll be
nice to have a bit of networking and share a
bit of food over the up and coming few days
(02:27):
around some of our towns.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell, he's been on the ground over
the last couple of days. What's he had to say
about the situation looking ahead?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, he's been good. So he came down on the
Hurk and I met with him and yeah, he gets
that he's the right man for that job and Australia
as the Minister goes, he cares, he gets it and
he's sort of more than willing to help out with
whatever's needed as well. And in terms of getting generators
down if we need to get more stuff on the Hurk,
he's been openly willing to help out. So it's great
(03:00):
we've got that connection up into Wellington.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Now. As far as Defence Force personnel on the ground
in the South, what's happening there.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, So they went out last night and they were
going into some of the more affected remote areas and
doing sort of wealthy checks and doing a bit of
recon and having a chat to the people. So that's
that's quite good. And I think they've been out again today.
So we've got it's a huge district when you when
you look at it and you try and reach all
of the areas to touch on people best. Where our
communities have been so great Again about last night and
(03:32):
I was popping into seas for people and people were
beating me to it, and there were cars pulling up
the drive and said, I just want to check on here.
Haven't heard from her in a while, so just making sure.
So all of that kind of community well being is
kind of taking care of itself, which is which is awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Regarding the drinking water situation, are there any concerns slugs
of Ohai and one term are in the firing line recently?
Where are we at there?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I just want to We've shouted out to Powered. I
just want to do a shout out to Downer. Those
starts been working like absolute troopers quite off and through
the night as well. So I've just come off the
phone to our water and waste team and Winton has
been giving us a couple of problems over the last
twelve hours or so, but that's yeah, that's the power
has actually just come on for our pumps and everything
(04:16):
there as well, so that's looking a lot better and
things are tracking really well. So I think we've got
all of our parts up and running well there now.
And that hasn't happened by chance. That's happened with some
people working down hard. So yeah, again just shouting out
to down as in the start at thea STC as well,
they've worked around the clock to keep things turning over.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
As far as the situation regarding the snow, For goodness sake,
is there any parts of the South that seemed to
have been affected in more ways than one?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
I couldn't believe it this morning when I looked out
the window and still the snow flakes coming down. I said,
Mother Nature, give us a break, and for the for
the team out there trying to do the lines that
they don't need that coming down as well. But it's
I think it's further up the country has been hit
a bit harder there. So I'm sitting in sunshine at
the moment, I'm just down by hedgehops. I'm kind of
hoping that the rest of southands in the same. And
(05:06):
we're up to seven degrees, which is seven more than
it was when I left home this morning, so it's
hopefully tracking in the right direction. There.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
See our phone towers, who is up to eighteen outs
not that many days ago. Are we up and running
again with sales services?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah, I think there's just just a handful now to
come back online. And yeah, that's definitely going to help
because when you haven't got comms, it's makes things a
lot harder. So it's good to see those all coming
back online. And it's been a bit of a reminder
of how connected we at our phones and how much
we need them, our phones and our electricity, the two
(05:42):
things that we've taken for granted. I think.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yeah, was that something that Minister Mitchell was made aware
of regarding the connectivity and the lack of it in
the Southern region.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, yeah, we thought him in on that. I mean,
he got a good briefing of the whole situation, and
I think the fact that the whole region got taken
out all at once, it has been quite a lesson.
Then I think we need to have a good sit
down at the end of this and work out how
to better prepare for the next time this kind of
thing happens. Luckily we've had no one who I'm really
(06:13):
hoping that there's no injuries with any other firewood work
that's happening going forward, and I think people need to
recognize that trees can have a mind of their own
sometimes and pop back up, and yeah, there's there's going
to be a bit of extra work going and the
recovery piece. So hopefully we managed to get through this
whole event injury free, but yeah, well with no lack
(06:36):
of connection and connectivity and if people were injured and stuff,
it would have a whole different kind of picture. So
we need to make sure we're better prepared for next time,
particularly if it's the earthquake or something like that where
we might not have the road connections that we've got now.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
To just finally, rob, how long is this state of
emergency going to last in the South.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
It will last till till we're comfortable to get rid
of it. It's quite interesting. I don't have it to
do anything yet with that, I'm going to get those tomorrow.
So yeah, it's I think the if I've got any
saying that we'll keep it under under and we'll probably
go into a recovery phase at some stage, but we
need to keep it there as long as we need
to make sure that we've got the right resources. And
(07:17):
I mean the farmers are needing there. We've they've been
sharing generators around and as the powers coming on, is
more and more generators freeing up, so we can actually
start to leave some at the farms to loosen that load.
And stock water is a real issue at the moment too.
We've been focusing on the sheds, but getting water to
the stock as a focus as well, so we can
start to actually spread those generators out. And while there's
(07:40):
those kind of needs going on, we've got animal wealthy,
we've got people wealth here. We need to make sure
that we're meeting those needs properly.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Rob's got South and District. May always appreciate your time
on the muster and it's been a pretty hectic four
or five days for yourself. Keep up the great job
everybody involved.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Thanks SNDY.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I've Scott Southern District Mayor. This is the master Grant's
Aster McMaster's up next, from the edges of klose Burin Station,
which is near Lake Walkeet Tippy
This is a muster on Hakanui. Rob Scott is Southern
District mayor and joins us rab. Good afternoon, getting an
update and what's been going on over the past twenty
four hours. How have things been?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yeah, good essenon Andy. It's then, I guess you could
call it a productive twenty four hours in terms of
more and more of our towns and properties getting power connected,
which I can almost feel the relief in the air
the power starts to come on in some places, but
also acknowledging that we still have a few places that
are still not not connected yet. So yeah, it's tracking
(00:39):
relatively well.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Has powernack giving an indication at all by chance as
to when they hope to have everything up and running again,
or is that just like a needle in a haystack.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
It's pretty much a needle in a haystack. And when
you see some of the photos of even where where
the trees are sort of wrapped up in the power
lines as they've taken them down, and so it's quite
hard for them to predict how long it's going to
kind of take to get power in some of those areas.
But they've been going a lot faster than I thought
they would, And yeah, I mean it's tracking really well.
(01:08):
And I bumped into some of the team a couple
of days ago on the ground when I was traveling around,
and yeah, they're a positive and I think they were
appreciative of the community support of them as well, Like
no one. I mean there's a few people give them
a bit of a hard time, but on the whole, Yeah,
people are accepting of the situation and can see how
hard they're working.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Absolutely a shout out to the team for powering it
and everybody's out there doing what they're doing at the
moment right now. Regarding this government support, one hundred and
fifty thousand dollars has been allocated so far. Is that
like South and ural Support Trust funding and the like?
So how would this be allocated?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yeah, we're working out how to sort of spread that
out in the best way. And the Royal Support Trust
have been awesome. I've just come off the call with
their chair and I think that's the model on how
to run an event like this with that group pulling
together all of the kind of stakeholders and all of
the interested parties around around South and just doing it
(02:05):
in such a coordinated way. It's it's a really effective
way to do stuff. So yeah, definitely getting out there
to support them and their good work. And they're getting
out and doing sort of barbecues as when and drumming tonight.
So just putting on some food for our people that
they have been well and truly tested. So it'll be
nice to have a bit of networking and share a
bit of food over the up and coming few days
(02:27):
around some of our towns.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell, he's been on the ground over
the last couple of days. What's he had to say
about the situation looking ahead?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, he's been good. So he came down on the
Hurk and I met with him and yeah, he gets
that he's the right man for that job and Australia
as the Minister goes, he cares, he gets it and
he's sort of more than willing to help out with
whatever's needed as well. And in terms of getting generators
down if we need to get more stuff on the Hurk,
he's been openly willing to help out. So it's great
(03:00):
we've got that connection up into Wellington.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Now. As far as Defence Force personnel on the ground
in the South, what's happening there.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, So they went out last night and they were
going into some of the more affected remote areas and
doing sort of wealthy checks and doing a bit of
recon and having a chat to the people. So that's
that's quite good. And I think they've been out again today.
So we've got it's a huge district when you when
you look at it and you try and reach all
of the areas to touch on people best. Where our
communities have been so great Again about last night and
(03:32):
I was popping into seas for people and people were
beating me to it, and there were cars pulling up
the drive and said, I just want to check on here.
Haven't heard from her in a while, so just making sure.
So all of that kind of community well being is
kind of taking care of itself, which is which is awesome.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Regarding the drinking water situation, are there any concerns slugs
of Ohai and one term are in the firing line recently?
Where are we at there?
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I just want to We've shouted out to Powered. I
just want to do a shout out to Downer. Those
starts been working like absolute troopers quite off and through
the night as well. So I've just come off the
phone to our water and waste team and Winton has
been giving us a couple of problems over the last
twelve hours or so, but that's yeah, that's the power
has actually just come on for our pumps and everything
(04:16):
there as well, so that's looking a lot better and
things are tracking really well. So I think we've got
all of our parts up and running well there now.
And that hasn't happened by chance. That's happened with some
people working down hard. So yeah, again just shouting out
to down as in the start at thea STC as well,
they've worked around the clock to keep things turning over.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
As far as the situation regarding the snow, For goodness sake,
is there any parts of the South that seemed to
have been affected in more ways than one?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
I couldn't believe it this morning when I looked out
the window and still the snow flakes coming down. I said,
Mother Nature, give us a break, and for the for
the team out there trying to do the lines that
they don't need that coming down as well. But it's
I think it's further up the country has been hit
a bit harder there. So I'm sitting in sunshine at
the moment, I'm just down by hedgehops. I'm kind of
hoping that the rest of southands in the same. And
(05:06):
we're up to seven degrees, which is seven more than
it was when I left home this morning, so it's
hopefully tracking in the right direction. There.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
See our phone towers, who is up to eighteen outs
not that many days ago. Are we up and running
again with sales services?
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah, I think there's just just a handful now to
come back online. And yeah, that's definitely going to help
because when you haven't got comms, it's makes things a
lot harder. So it's good to see those all coming
back online. And it's been a bit of a reminder
of how connected we at our phones and how much
we need them, our phones and our electricity, the two
(05:42):
things that we've taken for granted. I think.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yeah, was that something that Minister Mitchell was made aware
of regarding the connectivity and the lack of it in
the Southern region.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, yeah, we thought him in on that. I mean,
he got a good briefing of the whole situation, and
I think the fact that the whole region got taken
out all at once, it has been quite a lesson.
Then I think we need to have a good sit
down at the end of this and work out how
to better prepare for the next time this kind of
thing happens. Luckily we've had no one who I'm really
(06:13):
hoping that there's no injuries with any other firewood work
that's happening going forward, and I think people need to
recognize that trees can have a mind of their own
sometimes and pop back up, and yeah, there's there's going
to be a bit of extra work going and the
recovery piece. So hopefully we managed to get through this
whole event injury free, but yeah, well with no lack
(06:36):
of connection and connectivity and if people were injured and stuff,
it would have a whole different kind of picture. So
we need to make sure we're better prepared for next time,
particularly if it's the earthquake or something like that where
we might not have the road connections that we've got now.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
To just finally, rob, how long is this state of
emergency going to last in the South.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
It will last till till we're comfortable to get rid
of it. It's quite interesting. I don't have it to
do anything yet with that, I'm going to get those tomorrow.
So yeah, it's I think the if I've got any
saying that we'll keep it under under and we'll probably
go into a recovery phase at some stage, but we
need to keep it there as long as we need
to make sure that we've got the right resources. And
(07:17):
I mean the farmers are needing there. We've they've been
sharing generators around and as the powers coming on, is
more and more generators freeing up, so we can actually
start to leave some at the farms to loosen that load.
And stock water is a real issue at the moment too.
We've been focusing on the sheds, but getting water to
the stock as a focus as well, so we can
start to actually spread those generators out. And while there's
(07:40):
those kind of needs going on, we've got animal wealthy,
we've got people wealth here. We need to make sure
that we're meeting those needs properly.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Rob's got South and District. May always appreciate your time
on the muster and it's been a pretty hectic four
or five days for yourself. Keep up the great job
everybody involved.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Thanks SNDY.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I've Scott Southern District Mayor. This is the master Grant's
Aster McMaster's up next, from the edges of klose Burin Station,
which is near Lake Walkeet Tippy
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!