The Hawke's Bay's Rural Support Co-ordinator says the quality of Government subsidised workers he's engaged to help storm hit farmers has exceeded expectations.
In April, more than 100 farms in the central and northern parts of the region suffered massive storm damage to paddocks, fences, tracks and water supplies.
The Government agreed to provide funds for Task Force Green workers and Rural Support Trusts.
Mike Barham heads a team charged with organising Task Force Green workers to help 63 farmers in central Hawke's Bay.
He says the workers skills are better than initially thought and more has been achieved than had been expected.
Mr Barham says Task Force Green workers have so far managed to help about 40 of the 63 farmers.
Road repairs take major effort
Central Hawke's Bay mayor Peter Butler says a huge amount of work has gone into re-opening and repairing rural roads, which suffered more than $4 million of damage from the storm.
He says a council's contractor had to remove more than 4000 truck and trailer loads of spoil to make one road alone passable.
Mr Butler says the council has an emergency fund to call on and he doesn't expect the road repairs to negatively affect rates.
