Mayor's message

Two and a half months on from the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle, we remain grateful to our communities who continue to provide safe spaces, resources, expertise and events to uplift spirits for their neighbourhoods.

We cannot thank those behind this mahi enough. Teams across Council have continued to prioritise connecting communities and sharing information with residents. Reaching those in badly impacted areas remains a challenge – we encourage those wanting information to sign up to our database or reach out to our customer service team.

Our silt taskforce has made huge progress, developing a comprehensive action plan with zones with dedicated contractors who are also collecting flood-damaged goods as they go.

Mental health and well-being remains at the forefront of our actions, as our teams contact residents in stickered properties to check-in, and to ensure we have the correct details to share updates and information as we receive it.

With winter on the horizon we are encouraging rural communities to start looking at what challenges they’ll be facing and review their winter resilience plans.

There are still a lot of unknowns, but we are pleased to hear in the latest update from the Cyclone Recovery Unit that no decisions on properties or communities will be made without comprehensive consultation.

Just like the national Cyclone Recovery Unit - we are committed to getting this right for our people and our businesses.

Our teams are continually reviewing the best ways to collect feedback from the community and want to emphasise that each and every resident’s thoughts and ideas are important.

People can sign up and get regular cyclone recovery updates at www.hastingsdc.govt.nz/cyclone-gabrielle/community-hubs#updates

Kia kaha

Sandra Hazlehurst

Mayor of Hastings

31 May 2023

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