Motueka’s ITM hit national headlines last week after stepping in to fill a rather desperate hole in the district’s sandbag situation.
With the late-week forecast looking dire on top of the previous week’s floods and no centralised sandbag provision in sight, ITM accounts manager Simon Fowler suggested bringing in truckloads of sand and offering free sandbags to the community.
About 600 bags were filled by hand on Wednesday. By Thursday, word had spread and charitable organisation Rapid Relief Team (RTT) had organised a specialised hopper to expedite the work.
The many dozens of people who drove in to stock up on sandbags also expressed heartfelt gratitude that the building supply company had taken the lead.
Motueka’s Holly Merrett, who lives on the southern end of High Street, collected two boot-loads of sandbags to shore up her property.
She says water tends to rush across the neighbouring paddocks, and while the previous week’s flooding had peaked level with her deck, she was nervous about the upcoming rain.
“I just don’t know if [more flooding] will happen or not.” Store manager Peter Faithful estimates that 3100 bags were filled over the two days, with more than 2500 distributed to the community.
“As fast as we could make the bags, people were driving in to collect,” he says.
“People were absolutely over the moon.”
The business delivered the bags for free to elderly residents around the district, some of whom shed tears of gratitude and relief.
Peter commented on “the amount of elderly that have been ringing up and almost sounding like they’ve got nowhere else to go”.
A pallet was delivered to Tapawera, and calls were fielded from as far as Hope, Brightwater and Wakefield.
RRT had several volunteers on the ground on Thursday, and the organisation deployed operations manager Jacob Wycherley from Palmerston North to operate the hopper.
“This is a bit more than your average cook-up,” he says. He explains that he was there to ensure there were no issues with the hopper, to make the best use of everyone’s time.
“We don’t want anyone standing around with hands in pockets.”
The local community also poured its support into helping with the initiative.
Motueka Contracting’s Karl Richards did run after run between Richmond and Motueka to collect and deliver sand.
“Without his trucks, unwavering commitment and support, none of this community engagement would have been possible,” Peter says.
Builder Jason Inch also gave up a day of work to run a loader, keeping the hopper filled with sand. Charitable Trust Te Kotahi o te Tauihu came through with 1500 empty sandbags, and Richmond Ravensdown and the Tasman Volunteer Rural Fire Brigade also each donated a bundle.
Love Motueka’s Claire Hutt grabbed sandbags for her Pah Street home on Wednesday, and on Thursday she returned to spend the day loading the bags into people’s vehicles.
Meanwhile, KTs Takeaways provided a morning tea fish and chips feed to fuel the workers and volunteers.
Peter says he is hugely grateful to the RTT group, which he calls “an amazing volunteer network with a seamless system of support”.
