Source: Radio New Zealand
A new satellite map has revealed the scale of devastation across the East Cape following a January storm. Supplied / Dragonfly Data Science
Recent severe storms have triggered more than 11,000 slips on the East Cape, according to satellite imagery.
Heavy rainfall caused widespread damage and flooding in parts of the North Island in January, with Te Araroa and Hicks Bay some of the hardest hit areas on the east coast.
The communities remain isolated from one another, with multiple landslides blocking State Highway 35, which remains shut to the public between Pōtaka and Te Araroa.
The Transport Agency said the ground was still moving, and further slips have been reported over the weekend near a large landslide at Punaruku – estimated to be 250,000 cubic metres.
Dragonfly Data Science said its before-and-after satellite imagery of the East Cape revealed the scale of the devastation, with comparisons providing a large-scale snapshot of where the land had moved.
It identified more than 11,000 landslips and silt damage covering 900 hectares.
The Wellington-based company said the recent storm caused significant, but concentrated destruction along the coastal northern end of the East Cape.
Dragonfly’s director Finlay Thompson said the map clearly illustrated what happened.
“It provides a birds-eye view of the area following an intense and highly localised storm event such as this, and offers an effective way of assessing how widespread and severe the damage is.”
The company developed a similar map following Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023, and Thompson believed such tools were crucial for understanding the “true scale” of such disasters.
He said these types of storms highlighted the gap between disaster response and long-term climate preparedness, and said better tools were needed to plan ahead.
“While this map isn’t a predictive tool on its own, it is an important first step. By linking storm impacts with rainfall and terrain data over multiple events, we could begin to build models that help predict where slips and flooding are most likely to occur in future.
“People’s livelihoods are at stake. While response and recovery efforts are critical and effective, the reality is that communities are living through significant disruption and loss in the meantime – and that’s something we can’t afford to treat as normal.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
