Who will pay for residents of the West Coast town Hector to "relocate" is one issue, whether or not they will leave is another.

Residents in a small West Coast town have paid more than $10,000 each for protection from the sea, but experts say they will still have to leave their homes.

The sea inundated properties in the seaside villages of Hector and Granity, north of Westport, when the remnants of ex-Cyclone Fehi struck in February.

NIWA coastal engineer Rob Bell, Climate Change Research Institute senior research fellow Judy Lawrence and the Ministry for the Environment's Emma Lemrie met with the community and regional council staff in Greymouth on Tuesday.

IAIN MCGREGOR/STUFF Penny Madden's home in Hector, north of Westport, was hit by a huge sea swell during a storm in early 2018.

They discussed the ministry's updated Coastal Hazards and Climate Change guidance document, which noted 133,265 people are at risk of sea level rise and 68,170 buildings – including 43,680 houses – are vulnerable. It is estimated replacing the buildings will cost $19 billion.

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Granity school teacher Penny Madden's home in Main Rd, Hector, was substantially damaged in February's storm.

DOMINIC HARRIS/STUFF The rear of a home in Hector after the area was ravaged by ex-cyclones Fehi and Gita

She has banded with eight neighbours on her street to build a bund to protect their homes during future swells.

​"We went to a meeting with the regional council and they asked what can they do for us and when someone makes a suggestion they say 'we can't do that'. They keep saying there is no money.

"So all the residents where I live have done their own work. There are a couple of gaps but most paid for their own protection to be put in," she said.

IAIN MCGREGOR/STUFF Rex Wishnowsky and his cat, Pinkie, at home in Hector near Westport.

Madden's section of the bund cost $12,000 and she hoped it would give her another 10 years at the property. NIWA and the regional council have told the residents that leaving the area is the only long-term solution.

"Moving has been mentioned, but mentioned is about it. They don't know how that will actually happen. We are sceptical. I think they are waiting for us to be washed away," she said.

Madden could not afford to pay for another mortgage as she was only 10 years away from retirement.

ALDEN WILLIAMS/FAIRFAX NZ The towns of Hector and Granity are in imminent threat of inundation, NIWA coastal engineer Rob Bell says.

Two houses that were red-stickered after Cyclone Fehi had been demolished in nearby Granity and Ngakawau. Madden said it was unfair that people who had to abandon their properties still had to pay rates on the land.

Brent Dyhrberg and Rex Wishnowsky paid $11,000 to have their property protected because they did not want to move.

They had been able to retain insurance cover, but were still vulnerable because of a "gaping great hole" in the bund next door.

Their neighbour, who lives in Wellington and has not been to the property since February, has refused to pay for any protection.

Dyhrberg said he feared the sea would come into their property when it inevitably flooded their neighbour's.

"We can't force him to do it. We have had to build a bund along his boundary. I feel a lot safer with the protection along Hector Beach ... We don't see it as a permanent solution, but it might give us five or maybe 10 years," he said.

West Coast Regional Council chief executive Mike Meehan said leaving the area was the best option for affected residents in the long-term.

"We haven't got all the answers. The biggest battle when we are talking to the community is who pays. That's a big sticking point."

﻿Buller District Council building inspectors red-stickered 35 houses and yellow-stickered 29 after ex-Cyclone Fehi hit.

Insurance Council figures reveal the storm cost $45.9 million in insurance claims nationwide, while ex-tropical Cyclone Gita, which hit a few weeks later, cost another $35.6m.

Bell said the towns of Hector and Granity were in imminent threat of inundation.

The community had to act now as rock wall protection could only help in the short-term, he said. Leaving was the only long-term solution.

Sea levels had been rising by 2 millimetres a year since 1900 and would rise by between 20 centimetres and 30cm in the next few decades.

Bell said reductions in global emissions would take decades to make a difference to sea-level rise.

Coastal flooding would become more frequent, particularly when king tides coincided with storms. Bell said insurance companies would inevitably withdraw cover, or raise premiums, for vulnerable communities.