• Residents of 46 houses in Edgecumbe will be allowed to return to their homes this morning
• Some Edgecumbe residents will not be able to return to their homes for 7-10 days
• The Rangitaiki River stop-bank has been repaired, and the Whakatane River stop-bank will be repaired by tomorrow
• A boil water notice is in place for Taneatua, Ruatoki and the Rangitaiki Plains
• Whakatane District Council is asking people whose homes are damaged to contact 0800 306 0500
  Whakatane Emergency Response Team has been working with SPCA, MPI and Massey University to find missing or stranded animals
• Civil Defence Centres have been set up at Whakatane War Memorial Hall, Kawerau's Rautahi Marae and Awakeri School
• Vehicle access to the Waharau community in the Hauraki District won't be restored for at least a week
• Several roads are closed across the Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty regions, particularly around Maretai, Hunua and Kaiaua
• Piako River remains high and flooding may continue in the Hauraki Plains
• Contractors say they are also being kept busy with flood damage in Wellington and Kaikoura

Residents of flood-ravaged Edgecumbe are frustrated and disappointed with how authorities are handling the floods.

More than 1600 people were evacuated from the Bay of Plenty town on Thursday, after a breach in the Rangitaiki River stop-bank caused the river to overflow.

Residents of five households on East Bank Road were allowed to return to their homes on Saturday, and residents of dry homes were allowed to recover belongings yesterday.

The residents of 46 more homes on the eastern side of the river are expected to be allowed back this morning.

However, Whakatane District Council said most of the town will remain cordoned off for 7 to 10 days, and some houses near the river will be condemned.

The news was delivered at a community meeting over the weekend, attended by hundreds of angry and devastated locals.

One young girl of primary school age stood up during the meeting, to offer a tearful account of how the flooding had affected her and her family.

"My mother on Wednesday spent about three hours just trying to get sandbags for our property. Nobody had any. [No one was] selfless enough to help us.

"I want to go home. I want to sit in my bed in again. I want to be in my house. I want my sofa."

One man said Thursday's evacuation notice took a while to get through the town, and he was given extremely late notice and no support.

"I had a four-month-old daughter, four other kids, elderly grandparents. I was on my own -- one van."

A women said district council and Bay of Plenty Regional Council officials needed to take responsibility for what happened, and for not alerting residents sooner.

She said the initial evacuation calls came from Edgecumbe residents themselves, when the realised water levels were rising quickly.

"There were no sirens. We had a fire department alarm that can be heard all over town and not once did it go off. Not once.

"These are our properties that we can no longer use. You go off to your homes, and we have to go off and scrounge, because we're now homeless."

A massive recovery operation is underway in other parts of the Whakatane District as well.

Civil defence centres are operating at Kawerau, Whakatane and Awakeri, and people in many areas are being urged to boil their water.

Sharon Lyford lives between Ruatoki and Taneatua. She said the floodwaters have receded and she has been able to get back inside her house.

"We're not knowing what to do with everything. The house really smells because there's a lot of silt.

"We're doing the best we can, but need the insurance assessor to come out, so we can keep going and start getting rid of stuff."

Whakatane District Council is asking people whose homes are damaged to contact 0800 306 0500.

Nationally, it could take six months to repair roads, water, sewerage and communications infrastructure damaged by ex-Cyclone Debbie.

The Firth of Thames community of Waharau, near the Hunua Ranges, will only be accessible via foot bridge for at least a week.

Several roads in Auckland, the Waikato and Bay of Plenty remain also remained closed due to high floodwaters.

Civil Contractors New Zealand chief executive Peter Silcock said the recovery will take contractors away from important upgrades and maintenance projects.

"The whole contracting industry is pretty busy at the moment. There's a lot of roads being built and pipe water renewals going on.

"A lot of the guys involved in this maintenance around the country will be engaged in this [recovery] work over the next six weeks."

Silcock said contractors have been busy across, Wellington, Kaikoura, Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Auckland clearings slips on the road.

"There's also other work to do to make sure other earth that's moving around the place is not going to come down onto the road and people are going to remain safe.

Auckland Transport is also deciding today whether to reopen the usually busy intersection of Great North Road and Clark Street in New Lynn.