On the morning of April 6, 2017, floodwaters rushed through the Eastern Bay of Plenty township of Edgecumbe and surrounding rural areas after the Rangitaiki River burst, breaching its stopbank that protected the town.

More than 180mm of heavy rain had fallen in the two days prior as Cyclone Debbie passed through, and when the township flooded rapidly it damaged more than 300 homes. Luckily, no lives were lost.

An aerial shot of the town of Edgecumbe.

But the people of Edgecumbe and surrounding rural areas were left with water-logged homes, farms, orchards and livelihoods.

Flooding overtook and killed off a lot of pastures, meaning cattle had to be moved off-farm for weeks if not months.

What ensued was months of clean-ups, repairs, demolition of homes, massive infrastructure and earthworks projects to rebuild the area's transport access, insurance claims; and hardship for some.

Today – one year on since the adverse event – SunLive has caught up with a farmer and an orchardist affected by the flooding and the man behind the rural response and recovery effort to see how people, their homes and livelihoods fare today and the lessons learned.

Damaged houses from the April 2017 flooding in the Bay of Plenty.

But the recovery work is still ongoing – Bay of Plenty Regional Council's project manager of flood recovery Paula Chapman details how a total of 520 sites of river bank or drain damage have been identified from the Kaituna Catchment Control Scheme through to the Waioeka-Otara Rivers Scheme.

And recently, Bay of Plenty Regional Council released details of its steady progress of addressing the recommendations of the Rangitaiki River Scheme Review. To read about this, click here.

Meanwhile, the Insurance Council has said nearly all claims from the Edgecumbe floods have been partially or fully settled.

One farmer used his silage bales, with sandbags, to try to stop floodwaters entering his property.

The amount of water was too much for a lot of infrastructure in the EBOP.

A milk tanker caught in the floodwaters.

The streets of Edgecumbe township after the flooding in early-April 2017.

Read more stories by about the Edgecumbe Floods here.