Officials and rural industry representatives toured the district for a series of public meetings, providing the latest updates and advice to hundreds of farm and rural town residents, while giving those affected by last week’s destruction a chance to yarn over a hot snag.
About 150 attended the Lawrence event at the town’s Simpson Park, where the emphasis was on post-event cleanup safety and maintaining "extraordinary" community spirit as hardships persisted.
Among announcements was a boost to emergency-access funding, as the Clutha District Council increased its Mayoral Relief Fund by $100,000, to $150,000.
Leading the Lawrence meeting was local councillor-elect Roger Cotton, who said, as people began cleaning up from the storm, they should accept help and not take risks.
Mr Cotton said there was plenty of time to harvest fallen trees and ensure they were not wasted, and introduced Balclutha logging contractor Mike Hurring to advise on best practice.
Mr Hurring said the absence of chainsaws in local hardware stores should serve as a warning.
"The chainsaw shops are sold out of chainsaws. Every man and his dog is out there on a chainsaw trying to fix really dangerous situations.
"So the biggest message is: if you’re out there with a chainsaw and you look at something and you think that it’s dangerous, then it is dangerous."
He said the region had plenty of qualified contractors for safe tree removal. Most trees felled by the storm would remain saleable for several months.
"Don’t panic. They’ve got quite a lifespan, the wood that’s down, the big plantations. If they’ve got a root ball on them, they’ll last quite some time, even the broken-off ones."
Minister for Rural Communities Mark Patterson praised the people of Lawrence, and all affected communities, for their "extraordinary" spirit following the event last Thursday.
He acknowledged many rural residents’ power and water supplies remained disrupted, nearly a week after storms tore through the South, leaving a trail of destruction.
Yesterday, the Lawrence reservoir was "critically low", at just 18%. Tapanui was at 39%, and the council was asking all residents to conserve water and report leaks to 0800 801-350 as supplies came back online.
The district remained on a precautionary boil-water notice, save for Balclutha, Milton, Waihola, Kaitangata and Wangaloa.
"This is a really serious event, which will have major financial and personal implications for those affected. If there has been a silver lining, it’s the way this and other affected communities have come together, which has been absolutely extraordinary," Mr Patterson said.
"Not all heroes wear capes."
