{"id":14268,"date":"2025-07-14T05:13:44","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T17:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=14268"},"modified":"2025-07-14T05:13:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T17:13:44","slug":"flash-flood-devastates-small-community-in-motueka-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=14268","title":{"rendered":"‘Flash-flood’ devastates small community in Motueka Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

A “flash-flood” has carved a path of destruction through a small rural settlement in the Motueka Valley, sending weary residents back to square one.<\/p>\n

Record rainfall has caused widespread damage across Nelson-Tasman, with Ng\u0101t\u012bmoti hit by devastating floods not once, but twice in two weeks.<\/p>\n

Shiloh Hobi’s serene demeanour belied the sheer scale of destruction caused by Friday’s rain as he showed RNZ what was once a small creek at the back of his property.<\/p>\n

The land had been gouged out by floodwater, leaving behind it piles of silt and splintered wood in what locals estimated was a trail a couple of hundred metres long.<\/p>\n

Hobi said the creek had only just been cleared of the mess caused by the flooding two weeks ago when Friday’s rain hit – bringing with it a shocking amount of new slash.<\/p>\n

“Thousands of tonnes of logs and silt… has come down and probably hundreds of tonnes of soil washed out to the sea that is impossible to be measured.<\/p>\n

“I am very glad that it [the slash] stopped here, because if that had gone down into the school and houses down the road – that would have been absolutely devastating.”<\/p>\n

The source of the slash was a forestry block on steep land about two kilometres upstream, Hobi said.<\/p>\n

He guessed a dam of water – caught behind trapped logs – reached at least five metres high before it burst – releasing a flash-flood of soil and silt into the settlement below.<\/p>\n

“We heard the huge boulders and the logs … it’s very noisy, very noisy.<\/p>\n

“No one really knows what happens, because it’s so wild when a flood like this comes and so many logs together – it’s absolutely unpredictable.”<\/p>\n

\"Slash<\/p>\n

Slash in Ng\u0101t\u012bmoti, on Sunday, following flooding and heavy rains.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0RNZ\/Samuel Rillstone<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Hobi said the forestry company had been very responsive, but its representatives were left speechless by what they saw on Saturday.<\/p>\n

“They didn’t know what to say because they themselves were absolutely shocked that so much has come down, so much has collapsed.”<\/p>\n

It was clear forestry practices needed to change, he said, noting that the recent damage – on top of what people were already facing – had left some reeling.<\/p>\n

“But I have found that anger is never a solution to anything. It maybe activates us to do something, but I think real decision-making needs to comes from a place of peace.<\/p>\n

“I see a future where this kind of complex situation can be solved.”<\/p>\n

rnz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A “flash-flood” has carved a path of destruction through a small rural settlement in the Motueka Valley, sending weary residents back to square one. Record rainfall has caused widespread damage across Nelson-Tasman, with Ng\u0101t\u012bmoti hit by devastating floods not once, but twice in two weeks. Shiloh Hobi’s serene demeanour belied the sheer scale of destruction […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14270,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14268\/revisions\/14270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}