FMG Rural Insurance received 260 claims from irrigator damage after last year's windstorm, with a total cost of about $7 million.
Following on from last issue's look at costs incurred by the Selwyn District Council after last September's windstorm, Irrigation New Zealand reports on what irrigation service companies have learnt in the storm's wake.
Wind gusts of up to 140kmh blew cars off roads, cut power to more than 40,000 homes and felled pine plantations.
Rural communities were especially hard-hit, with fencing, farm sheds and machinery among the things damaged. For many farmers, however, the immediate concern was damage inflicted to irrigators, particularly as the irrigation season was about to get under way. Initial reports estimated more than 800 irrigators were broken or destroyed in record wind gusts on September 10 last year. Many of these were centre-pivot systems.
Irrigation New Zealand chief executive Andrew Curtis said at the time: ''The extent of damage to centre-pivots and other irrigators across the region is unprecedented.''
One year on, IrrigationNZ reports back on the consequences of that natural disaster, what irrigation service companies have learnt in its wake and how they plan to respond if and when another major windstorm occurs.
FMG Rural Insurance looks after the majority of New Zealand irrigators and sent staff to Canterbury within days of the event to inspect damage.
Products and services general manager Mike Lange said it was immediately obvious the wind event had caused significant damage.
''We knew that these wind storms were going to heavily impact on our clients in the region, particularly those with irrigators, so we made sure our assessors were on the ground as soon as possible.
''As a result, FMG saw 260 claims from irrigator damage, with a total cost of around $7 million. We're pleased to say that 98% of these claims are now settled. Lucas Cawte, from Rainers Irrigation, recalled last year's event as a ''logistical nightmare''.
''Overall I think we managed pretty well. We were quite quick to jump on to repairs. The first thing we actioned was an overseas contract crew from South Africa. ''They focused on our existing workload such as new installs so our team could get on with the repair side of things, deconstruction and reconstruction. I think it worked well.''
Liz Stephens, from Plains Irrigators Ltd, said dealing with the aftermath was a massive undertaking, but staff coped admirably and the company had learnt a lot from the experience.
Having a strategic plan to set out how they would respond to the damaged irrigators in a major event proved invaluable, Ms Stephens said.
Being prepared meant they were able get on with the job at hand rather than waste time planning and dividing up resources. Having a core group of experienced staff was the main advantage.
Staff who had been with Plains Irrigators for more than 10 years took a lead role advising more recent staff, who were at times overwhelmed with the scale of repairs required. One of the interesting observations Plains Irrigators staff made was about the type of damage sustained during the event.
Unlike usual repair jobs, where an irrigator had suffered impact and/or collision, the damage was mostly to tower joints and support angles, Ms Stephens said.
Corner systems were vulnerable, as even if the main pivot was faced into the prevailing wind, the corner was not, which proved to be a real issue for some properties. WaterForce manager and director Paul Donaldson said both farmers and insurance companies were extremely good to deal with throughout the event and their understanding of the situation and patience was appreciated.
''We found that a large portion of clients were under-insured for this type of event. Often the farmer had insurance for the irrigator value only and had not included the construction cost, and in some cases the clients had only insured half the value of the irrigator.''
Irrigators that were parked directly into the wind or downwind suffered less or no damage, Mr Donaldson said, and technology could be used to help farmers remotely monitor prevailing wind direction and speed in relation to irrigator positions.
In preparation for another wind event, FMG Rural Insurance and IrrigationNZ were now working together to release updated recommendations which advised how to protect irrigation infrastructure during a windstorm.
FMG had also partnered with Lincoln University's research team to investigate how farmers protected their irrigators during the storms.
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