There are major disruptions across the top of Te Waipounamu, as the state highways connecting Blenheim and Nelson remain firmly shut.
The commute is now taking eight hours - with a diversion through Canterbury. It's causing headaches for businesses and supply chains.
Williams Green Grocers owner Gavin Williams said he tried to supply as local as he could but it was just not possible at present with SH6 and SH63 closed.
"A lot of our produce is sourced here in Marlborough or over the hill in Nelson and, obviously being fresh produce, we purchase daily. With the roads closed, that's been a real challenge for us and we've actually had to change to some of our alternate suppliers in Christchurch," he said.
While it was great they were getting produce in, the alternative route was more unreliable, Williams said, and getting space in trucks was a struggle.
"We had a very busy weekend getting all of this set up... we just want to get back to our usual supply routes as soon as possible."
Across town, Brian Robert-Powell's pharmacy has helped drop medication into isolated communities, with 20 to 30 helicopter and four-wheel-drive trips already completed.
"We've had a pharmacy depot in Havelock for a number of years now and we started fielding phone calls on Saturday with people saying they're locked in and asking how they will get their medicines," he said.
"After a bit of looking around, we discovered the amazing people in the Civil Defence who took it on board to help us get prescriptions to where they were needed. Some people had run out of their epilepsy medication and they needed it urgently; there's no getting around that."
Marlborough Public Health Organisation chief executive Beth Tester said a Ministry of Health exemption meant people could be delivered up to a month's worth of their prescription without needing to visit a doctor or their local pharmacy.
"We're asking people to think a week in advance of what they will need so we can get them to them and they're not without medication. It just highlighted to me though that people run quite close to the wind with their medication and often leave it to the last minute...that's a lesson that I think's being learnt [now]," she said.
Health staff had been trapped and acute mental health patients were being sent to Christchurch instead of Nelson.
But the true onslaught might not be felt for a while yet, Tester said.
"We find normally with these events it's about three months in, when the financial impact starts hitting. It's quite romantic initially to sleep in a boat shed, but after a while it'll lose its appeal for people...So in a few more weeks, we're expecting to get a huge demand for welfare."
Marlborough mayor John Leggett said the land was still moving.
"There's clear damage to some where slips have actually come down into the housing communities...but there's also geotech work that needs to be done up above their communities. Some of the ground up in the Marlborough Sounds, I'm told, is visibly shifting..."
So far, around 60 homes had been declared uninhabitable.
Regional emergency management controller Richard Coningham believed more were likely to follow.
"A large amount [of the damaged houses] are holiday homes so these people at this stage may not even be aware that there is damage to their homes, and we're going through a process to try and connect with the owners to make them aware of the situation."
Further rain is forecast for tomorrow, but Coningham said the current indication is that it's not expected to cause any more significant damage.
