The Marlborough District mayor has painted a grim picture of the damage caused by wild weather in the region, saying it's "eye-watering".
A state of emergency remains in place for Nelson and Marlborough, and some rivers at the top of the South Island have had their biggest floods on record.
Roads are closed, farms are flooded and communities are completely cut off.
Marlborough District Mayor John Leggett told AM on Monday the weather is currently calm but the extent of the damage is starting to become clear.
"The damage that's caused by that weather event, is eye-watering. We're still in our response phase of recovery, so we've got a lot of work to do," he told AM co-host Melissa Chan-Green.
"We've got our welfare teams going out today and of course, the assessment of damage and it's not only the roading network, there are a number of houses that need to be checked, so we've got our building inspectors out and about. So really busy day and a busy period ahead for us."
Leggett said there are still communities cut off and a key focus will be looking after stranded residents who are still evacuated from their homes.
"The Rai Valley is still without road access. Canvastown, Havelock and the State Highway 6 through to Nelson is going to be a very long, slow rebuild, but also in the Marlborough Sounds, there were a number of isolated communities down there," he said.
"We've had helicopters sweeping around the bays, just checking on people. We've had the harbourmaster out, going bay to bay just to check on people and really, it's a welfare priority. People first and the assessment obviously is on top of that, so a busy period ahead."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty will be surveying the damage in the Marlborough region on Monday.
Leggett asks the Prime Minister not to forget about the Marlborough region when assessing the damage.
"Our thoughts go out to our close neighbours in Nelson. When you see the footage of some of the damage and the houses that have been evacuated over there, it's really disturbing. We have a similar situation here, but our damage is far more widespread," he told AM.
"So through the northwestern Marlborough District and into the Marlborough sounds, we've got a number of people that are out of their homes and homes precariously placed now with slips and the light grounds.
We have similar issues long-term with people and their accommodation, so we don't want to be forgotten in this."
Marlborough was also devastated by wild weather in July last year, but Leggett said last week's weather was much more "severe".
"We can see that there's massive damage and to put it in perspective, we had that major flood in July 2021, and it's clear that this is far more severe than that one," he said.
"Remembering that we're still repairing roads and access to some communities from that 2021 event. So this is on top of that and clearly, we've got a long road to recovery."
Watch the full interview with John Leggett above.
