The Mayor of Wairoa is launching an urgent investigation to find out why its river destroyed so many homes in Cyclone Gabrielle.
Mayor Craig Little believes slash is mostly to blame for the unusual flood behaviour 10 months ago.
The Government is funding $70 million of flood protection for the town, but the council wants to get to the bottom of the issue before it starts building stopbanks or spillways.
When hundreds of Wairoa's homes were buried in mud in February, residents were baffled as to why a river so familiar to them behaved so unusually.
"We've got slash and woody debris that caused a significant change in how the river flooded," Mayor Little told Newshub.
Slash that Cyclone Gabrielle swept from forestry sites, onto beloved homes. It wiped out roads and railways and sparked several inquiries into land use.
Wairoa is the latest council to investigate the role of slash in the destruction of its town.
"We've got a lot of evidence showing us bridges built up like beaver dams and things like that. We shouldn't have to do this but we are doing it because we want to make sure our people will never have a flood like that again," Little said.
People like Matewai Pene, who is still camping among the gutted shell of her beloved whare.
"It's just a matter of waiting, we've just got to wait and be patient," Pene said.
However, patience is hard when you're living with babies in third-world conditions. Neighbour Julie Amoto is concerned.
"Babies like that deserve better, they don't need to live like this and grow up in this state. It's not good, and there's no way you can describe how it feels for us," she expressed to Newshub.
Of the 130 yellow-stickered houses in Wairoa, about half are uninsured and the mayor worries about how to get them back on their feet.
It's no easy task because the town needs to build flood protection first - which it won't do until its inquiry is complete as that will determine how the Government's money is spent.
"It's got to be done, because if it'd been done after Cyclone Bola perhaps we wouldn't have flooded like we did," Little said.
Last week, the new Government paid Wairoa a visit to see the devastation firsthand and show support.
Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell told Newshub they are now considering further support.
"This was part of the reason for the visit last week, to get on the ground and hear from people in Wairoa what they need and what their concerns are. I am committed to doing what I can to support their recovery," Mitchell said.
"Wairoa was the Prime Minister's first regional visit since being sworn in as Prime Minister and I was the first MP on the ground in Wairoa after the flooding.
"This shows how seriously we take the issues facing Wairoa."
But Wairoa's mayor is urging them to dig deep in their pockets, as his district needs millions more dollars to fix their ruined roads and uninsured houses.
"We don't want a hui and no do-ey, we've got to get onto it," Little said.
Although the town's physical scars are healing, the mental ones will take more time - as when it rains, the anxiety comes flooding back.
"That's really scary, it takes you back to that time," Pene said.
