|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Sun, 19th Mar 2023 9:56:00 |
|
Cyclone Gabrielle: The New Zealand flood victims too scared to go home |
Last month, Cyclone Gabrielle smashed into New Zealand's North Island - killing 11 people and displacing at least 10,000 more. It's triggered a national debate about climate change and whether vulnerable homes should be rebuilt or written off.
"I don't want to go back there," said Amy Bowkett.
The mother of two lived in the Hawkes Bay area, one of the regions worst hit by Cyclone Gabrielle. When the Category 3 storm hit with wind speeds of up to 159km/h (99mph), her home was completely destroyed.
Along with 50 of her neighbours she spent a terrifying 48 hours trapped without power, water?or phone signal.??
Eventually she was able to make a call and a friend?organised a helicopter rescue from a neighbour's?backyard.?? ?
"I feel like if we get flooded a third time, it would be our fault," she told the BBC from her mother's home in the nearby city of Napier. "Unless we put our house on stilts, I'd be terrified every time it rained."
She's not alone in fearing to return. Many of the victims of New Zealand's recent floods lost all of their possessions in the disaster and believe the area their homes are built?on has become too dangerous for them to go back.??
The damage caused by the cyclone is forecast to cost NZD$13.5bn ($8.4bn; £6.9bn), similar to the financial impact of the Christchurch earthquake in 2011 - the costliest natural disaster in New Zealand's?history.??Last month's event prompted a nationwide state of emergency that only ended on Tuesday.
Cyclone Gabrielle also struck within weeks of unprecedented flooding in New Zealand's biggest city, Auckland, when an entire summer's worth of rain fell in a single day.
New Zealand's climate change minister, James Shaw, attributed the scale of the disaster to climate change, exacerbated by global temperature increases.
"There will be people who say it's too soon to talk about these things… but we are standing in it right now. This is a climate change-related event," he said in a speech to parliament last month.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Shaw said that while many homeowners have taken out a "total replacement" insurance policy, which compensates them if their house is destroyed or made uninhabitable, it only covers the cost of the property - not the value of the land it's built on.
This means people feel "they have to rebuild on the current land and of course, they're really frightened", he added.
The country is likely to experience more extreme rainfall events and regional cyclones are likely to become more frequent by 2100, according to New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. During warm months days are already hotter, drier and windier, increasing the risk of bushfires.
Some 55,000 homes in Auckland are prone to flooding, according to government data. Another 76,000 homes across the country are in coastal areas, vulnerable to erosion and sea level rise.
"[When] people are sleeping with lifejackets by the door, you know it's bad," said displaced West Auckland resident Morgan Allen. "The anxiety has reached peak levels."
Read original full article
|
| |
|
|
Back to Featured Articles
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Energy News
|
|
| |
| |
