New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has warned cyclone-displaced families of a long wait for answers on their future, anticipating some will face compulsory buy-outs.
It is now a week since the most devastating weather from Cyclone Gabrielle passed through New Zealand, killing at least 11 people and displacing thousands.
The damage left is profound but patchy.
In Hawke's Bay, where much of New Zealand's stonefruit is grown, some apple growers have lost their entire orchards, while others are shaken but unscathed.
Some suburbs were evacuated due to surging floodwater, while nearby homes were merely drenched.
Sharp questions are being asked about where it is suitable to farm or grow produce, and live.
The Napier MP and senior cabinet minister Stuart Nash has flagged the prospect of hard-hit Esk Valley, including the town of Eskdale, being unsuitable for rebuilding.
Another Labour MP, Phil Twyford, has written to his former cabinet colleagues to move urgently on "managed retreat" or buying out home owners to let people move on with their lives.
Managed retreat - two words that Finance Minister Grant Robertson warned Kiwis "they would hear a lot of" this year - refers to the relocation of communities where it is deemed no longer safe to live.
On Tuesday morning, Mr Hipkins suggested the process would be taxing, emotional and difficult for both government and affected Kiwis.
"Clearly going to have to work through a process with those areas that can't be re-inhabited," he told Newstalk ZB.
"And of course, we'll do that with respect to the people whose lives have been turned upside down."
In earthquake-prone New Zealand, there is at least experience to lean on.
The 2011 Christchurch earthquakes - which killed 185 people - produced vast areas of land deemed unsuitable for rebuild, and required forensic inspection of thousands of houses to assess whether they were structurally sound.
An added layer of complexity is insurance coverage.
Even for Kiwis who insured their homes, the labyrinthine process to access payouts after the earthquakes were traumatising for many.
Mr Hipkins - who wouldn't be drawn on which areas may be unlivable after the massive storm - warned many would have to walk a similar path after Cyclone Gabrielle.
"It didn't happen overnight after the Canterbury earthquakes. It won't happen overnight now," he said on TVNZ.
"There were some people who did not want to move and there were some people who in the end had to move even though they did not want to.
"There's a lot of different issues that we will need to work through.
"Including making sure people who do need to relocate are able to free up their finances and release themselves from their existing land ownership or property ownership, claim their insurance and get on with their lives."
