Civil Defence assessing specialist advice

Civil Defence in Taupo will tonight and tomorrow be assessing specialist advice from GNS Science and Opus on the state of the land above Waihi village on the southern shores of Lake Taupo.

A GNS team – nicknamed the “flying squad” - was helicoptered on to high ground above the village today to make a visual assessment of the threat of a major slip, and to put in metal poles that will be used to measure land movement.

The Opus team moved by foot into another area of lower ground to make a visual assessment there and look at the position of survey pegs put in some years ago.

The Civil Defence controller for the operation, Shamus Howard, said the information from the GNS and Opus teams would be assessed along with rainfall and earthquake predictions to judge when it may be safe for people to return to the village.

“The teams have been looking for signs of cracks and other land movements. We’ll be looking at all the information they’ve gathered, and weigh this up along with expected rainfall and whether we can expect another swarm of earthquakes in the area,” Mr Howard said.

“We hope to provide people with the initial results of our overnight assessment tomorrow morning.”

Today’s investigation follows a warning earlier this week from Civil Defence that there was an increased likelihood of a major slip due to a swarm of earthquakes in the area and rain.

Villagers voluntarily self-evacuated on Monday afternoon and are currently staying with friends and whanau.

A state of emergency declaration means the village will be closed until at least midday Friday. State Highway 41 remains closed between Tokaanu and Pukawa. Boats are excluded from Lake Taupo in an area within 600 metres of Waihi Village.

Civil Defence has today established a welfare centre in Tokaanu at a local marae and backpackers to accommodate the Waihi village residents as required.

Mr Howard asked for patience while Civil Defence weighed up the findings of today’s investigation.

“We appreciate the inconvenience caused by the closure of the village and State Highway 41, and want to get things back to normal as soon as we can. But the safety of the public is paramount and we need to be much clearer about the risk of a slip before we can make a judgment about how long people should be kept away from the area.”