The repair bill for Northland's roads could be up to $250 million according to Whangārei's mayor Vince Cocurullo - and that excludes the state highways.
And that's not the worst of it. It will take months before rail freight services to and from the region can resume due to severe damage to the network.
There's also a warning about the risk of more power outages due to a major slip near Wellsford.
Strangling the flow of goods between Auckland and Northland is 35,000 cubic metres of earth wiping out a section of the freight rail network between the two regions.
"The scale is pretty huge for us. Between Swanson and Whangārei, we have about 50 slips. Where we are standing today is the largest one," KiwiRail chief operations officer Siva Sivapakkiam told Newshub.
It started to come down during the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle only made matters worse.
"It's exacerbated the initial situation and it's still kept the earth moving," Sivapakkiam said.
On Thursday, it was the first day KiwiRail had been able to start repairs which are expected to take up to 12 weeks.
"Right now, we are clearing the slip sight to unearth our rail track to understand the total damage. What I could say is that it will be in the millions," Sivapakkiam said.
Whangārei Mayor Vince Cocurullo told Newshub: "Having the rail line shut forces everything onto the road and puts more damage onto the roading network."
The roading network has suffered greatly already.
The main highway to and from Northland State Highway 1 at the Brynderwyn Hills reopened on Wednesday but only to northbound traffic.
Cocurullo estimated the regional economy lost a million dollars a day when it was fully closed and the ongoing closure of the southbound lane continues to have an impact.
"Everything from produce to tourism and also workers. We've got people working in Whangārei who are travelling down to Warkworth to do work down there, builders, contractors, and it puts an additional hour, hour and a half, sometimes three hours onto their trip," Cocurullo said
While Waka Kotahi continues to monitor for any slips on the vital route, a slip near two towers has Transpower worried.
The tower closest to the slip is out of action, meaning all of Northland is currently being powered by one high-voltage line, which increases the risk of outages.
"The risk in another major weather event is that the slip could continue to move, which would undermine the towers, which would mean there would be power issues for Northland," Transpower grid delivery general manager Mark Ryall told Newshub.
But Transpower is confident the risk to the main tower is low.
"We thought it was better to be cautious and notify people so they are aware," Ryall said.
"Have your gas bottle filled, have some batteries, and be prepared. We don't think it's going to happen and we are hopeful our risk mitigation will be done in plenty of time."
As Transpower works towards a fix, others work to get things back on track.
