“It’s going to be extremely hard [to find new accommodation] in Westport,” Croft said, “There was already a housing crisis. I m absolutely gutted. I try to keep my chin up. It’s better than crying.” They are among 200 to 300 Westport residents expected to be forced from their homes due to the floods. Buller District Mayor Jamie Cleine said on Wednesday he expected about 100 properties would be “red-stickered”. More than 30 had been deemed uninhabitable so far.
STUFF
Rivers bursting their banks, flash floods and more intense cyclones. How climate change is making floods more extreme. Sites for temporary accommodation villages in the town were being identified, and Cleine said portable homes could soon begin being delivered from Canterbury. Some residents could be living in the villages for years, he said.