Mārahau residents say a big clean-up is underway, after the river burst its banks on Friday, ripping through the beachside settlement in Tasman.
Civil defence did a welfare check on the isolated community by helicopter, after slips and trees came down over the roads, cutting off access.
Locals, who didn't want to be named, spoke to RNZ, after walking south over the hill from Mārahau to Kaiteriteri.
They said the flooded Mārahau River washed through the settlement, damaging some homes on Franklin Street, which had been hit particularly hard.
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