Last April and May, Darryl Jensen virtually had nothing to do with his Paengaroa dairy farm.

As Federated Farmers' Bay of Plenty provincial president he stepped into action on April 6 when flooding hit the Eastern part of his region and the Rangitaiki River burst its banks, spilling water through Edgecumbe and damaging hundreds of people's homes, farms and livelihoods.

'It was 24/7 just about – seven days a week,” says Darryl, who led the rural response and recovery efforts on behalf of Federated Farmers.

'But then we couldn't carry on what we were doing so we made a roster. And I was lucky that here on my farm my staff really stepped up.

'Virtually April-May I didn't have much to do with my farm at all because I was focused on the event. 'Then in early May we went from seven to five days.”

The team included people from the Bay of Plenty Rural Support Trust, DairyNZ, ANZ, Rabobank, Fonterra and local farmers their wives.

He also had support from Lisa Payne, head of Farm Source for Fonterra and their ERT Team which helped out Fonterra suppliers and staff with the clean-up of their properties, local Fonterra representatives Andrew Karl and Rachel Dillion as well as Bay of Plenty Regional Council and Whakatane District Council.

Then-Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy and local MP Anne Tolley visited the region and Darryl showed them the damage, the people and what needed doing.

'This is where Federated Farmers – then-president William Rolleston and Katie Milne from the Adverse Events team in particular – as an organisation gave me links to key ministers to tell them from the ground exactly what was going on and make things happen in some cases,” says Darryl.

'It was unknown territory for us, so we duplicated what had worked in the 2004 flood event when the Whakatane River spilled into the town and the Rangitaiki River overflowed above Edgecumbe.

'To be honest it is not a good place to be ‘winging it' but we got there in the end and come out the other end a lot wiser.”

From that experience Darryl says he had a good template to work from. But this event was different because it included a township and a large part of the Eastern and Western BOP region – not just Edgecumbe.

Darryl's involvement started the night before April 6. 'We'd had some weather warnings so myself and Lisa Payne arranged to meet on Bells Rd at 7am the next morning as we knew there'd be a bit of flooding.”

'That morning, Lisa, myself and Andrew Karl just started working our way down Bells Rd. And what we actually saw was a lake of water.”

'So we just started visiting people, going from farmer to farmer. When we got to the last farmer, we thought ‘Okay we'd go see people on the other side of Te Puke'. Then we got a call to say the river had been breached in Edgecumbe.”

What did he think then? 'We didn't know what it was. I didn't know the area very well. So I met Allan Law who I knew through Federated Farmers, down there at his place just down the road from Edgecumbe.”

'Allan was my go-to person for the next three days – as local knowledge is so important – and we along will the many others involved just reinvented what had worked in 2004.”

Darryl says seeing the devastation up in the outlying areas was mind-blowing, as was viewing the flooding firsthand from a helicopter.

But the best moments have been seeing people move back into their repaired homes and farmers back to farming their animals on their properties – in some cases a near new home and a vast improvement on their past living conditions.

'When you see people go back to into their house – it's a big burden goes off their shoulders. And I do feel for those people on Rata Ave/College Rd who lost their homes. But it is not viable to build a home on that land anymore.”

After the first few months the workload lessened but he's still involved today, meeting with agencies and councils still involved in ongoing repair work and future planning.

Darryl says the event enabled him to get know more of his region, its communities and learn more about what is needed to futureproof farmers and their rural communities from future adverse events.

'Today the rural community is pushing for a structured Civil Defence plan and trying to build resilience among people.”