After weeks of devastating floods, Nelson Tasman Civil Defence is today focusing on assessing damage to homes, and looking at the longer-term welfare needs of flood-affected residents.
In Ngātimoti, resident Andrea says the destruction from Friday's flooding is the worst-case scenario and has forced some families to leave the area.
She said the sound of the flooded Motueka River was unbelievable.
"[It] was deafening as it got wider and wider and more powerful.
"It got to the point where - we've got a double-glazed house - and you could hear it from the house still."
Andrea said the scale of damage was hard to comprehend, given that the settlement was hit badly a mere two weeks ago.
"We thought that the worst of the slash from the forestry had come down. We thought we knew what we were in for this time.
"And just to get hit with even more, it's just incredible. And just so many more people affected this time. It's just so devastating."
She said a handful of families had been badly affected, and she was already aware of some who had kids at the school but were having to relocate.
Record rainfall has caused widespread damage across Nelson-Tasman, with Ngātimoti hit by devastating floods not once, but twice in two weeks.
There has been widespread damage to private property, farmland and infrastructure like roads, from ongoing heavy rain during the past fortnight and into this weekend, with floods, slips, power outages, road closures, and buildings flooded.
Shiloh Hobi's serene demeanour belied the sheer scale of destruction caused by Friday's rain as he showed RNZ what was once a small creek at the back of his property.
The land had been gouged out by floodwater, leaving behind it piles of silt and splintered wood in what locals estimated was a trail a couple of hundred metres long.
Hobi said the creek had only just been cleared of the mess caused by the flooding two weeks ago, when Friday's rain hit, bringing with it a shocking amount of new slash.
"Thousands of tonnes of logs and silt ... has come down and probably hundreds of tonnes of soil washed out to the sea, that is impossible to measure.
"I am very glad that it [the slash] stopped here, because if that had gone down into the school and houses down the road, that would have been absolutely devastating."
The source of the slash was a forestry block on steep land about two kilometres upstream, Hobi said.
He guessed a dam of water, caught behind trapped logs, reached at least five metres high before it burst, releasing a flash flood of soil and silt into the settlement below.
"We heard the huge boulders and the logs ... it's very noisy, very noisy.
"No one really knows what happens, because it's so wild when a flood like this comes and so many logs together - it's absolutely unpredictable."
He said the forestry company had been very responsive, but its representatives were left speechless by what they saw on Saturday.
"They didn't know what to say because they themselves were absolutely shocked that so much has come down, so much has collapsed."
It was clear forestry practices needed to change, he said, noting that the recent damage, on top of what people were already facing, had left some reeling.
"But I have found that anger is never a solution to anything. It maybe activates us to do something, but I think real decision-making needs to comes from a place of peace.
"I see a future where this kind of complex situation can be solved."
Civil Defence group controller James Thompson said building inspectors would be assessing properties on Sunday and marking those with water damage.
The Motueka Recreation Centre at 40 Old Wharf Road would be open from 10am for people to chat with agencies about their welfare needs, he said.
People needing free meals can get them from Te Maatu wharenui at Motueka High School, from midday until 5pm on Sunday.
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