Cantabrians left to pick up the pieces after region hit hard by storm

June 3, 2021

1 NEWS reporter Donna-Marie Lever has this report.

Across the region, the water has mostly receded after this week’s storm, but it’s revealed a growing workload ahead for the people of Canterbury.

The Ballantynes Bridge in the Ashburton District was largely washed away by the Hinds River, cutting access to Neroli Davies’ backcountry farm.  

“She was absolutely hurtling down here, the trees, the rocks, the sound of it. Just coming up, up, up,” she told 1 NEWS.

“We’ve lost a bit of baleage, quite a bit of fencing and we’ve got to hook around and up the other side. It’s okay, but it’s a long haul on the tractor.” 

With land on both sides of the river, Davies now has to travel 10 kilometres down the road to be able to safely cross over.  

In other parts of the region, roads that have been completely wiped out now having to be filled in one truckload at a time. 

There is some good news for commuters, with trucks given the green light to cross over the Ashburton Bridge after stress testing deemed it safe. 

Mayor Neil Brown says they’ll continue to closely monitor the structure after the torrential downpour tore a large crack on both sides of one of the bridge’s main supports. 

“It will only be for daylight hours and we’re monitoring the bridge to see that it’s holding up under the heavy trucks. At night time they can’t so heavy trucks will need to come of it at night. 

"They’ll have to use the alternate route which is heading inland on the council roads," Brown says.

Paddocks of winter feed have been filled with silt, causing headaches for farmers left without supplies to last their cattle all winter. 

Federated Farmers spokesperson David Clark says many will run themselves to the ground trying to clean up the damage. 

“The problem is now people are working themselves to exhaustion to get access to stock to repair fences. People are starting to realise the enormity of the task they have ahead of us,” he told 1 NEWS. 

It’s a long road ahead with the season’s crops left to rot before they have a chance to eat it.

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