Rail tracks covered in silt in the Esk Valley by flooding during Cyclone Gabrielle, 20 February. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
As the Hawke's Bay sun begins to dry out the silt piles left by Cyclone Gabrielle, the dust problem is becoming so bad, some residents are leaving their homes.
There's still up to 1.5 million cubic metres of debris to shift, much of it sitting in heaps on the edges of properties and orchards, ready for collection.
Hawke's Bay Regional Council has secured enough funding to move 200,000 cubic metres of it over this month and next, but past that point, funding to finish the job is uncertain.
But as the piles crust over, and are then disrupted, it's whipping them up into plumes of dust. Scientists are gathering in the region to analyse how much of an issue this is likely to be as El Nino arrives.
Esk Valley resident Steve Wheeler's lifestyle block was buried under two metres of silt during the cyclone.
While much of it is cleared away, he says the dust is getting extreme, he's moving house to another area today and he says he's not the first.
Steve, along with NIWA air quality scientist Elizabeth Somervell and Silt Recovery Taskforce lead Darren de Klerk, speak to Susie Ferguson.
