With more rain forecast for the Buller District, some frustrated locals have called for urgent flood mitigation work.
Evacuated residents in Westport were today allowed to return to their homes to assess the damage.
Many of residents have only just finished the repairs from the the floods in July last year, and don't want to go through this again.
But what can be done to limit the damage of mother nature?
Professor James Renwick is a climate scientist at Victoria University.
