Meeting hears flooding angst

Te Kūiti residents whose properties have flooded twice this year – on Auckland Anniversary weekend and earlier this month – are coping with pain and uncertainty.

More than 40 flood victims who own properties of the western side of Te Kūiti attended a meeting at Waitomo District Council on Tuesday night where they shared the depth of their loss, anger and frustration.

The meeting was organised by Duke St resident Dr Sharon Esteves whose property was among those flooded in the latest intense downpour on Sundy,

October 8.

Sharon said the frustration and anger she felt seeing water inundate her property was overpowering, but she knew that she and her husband were not the only ones going through such emotions.

There was huge pain and uncertainty being felt by those whose properties had now been flooded twice this year.

“It’s about us as a community, so it’s really important that our voices are heard,” Sharon said.  

For about an hour speaker after speaker rose to their feet to deliver heartrending accounts of how they had been affected by the flooding.

Duke St residents Dennis and Maude Bennett are among at least three residents who have been forced to stay in a motel following the intense storm which hit town on the Sunday afternoon. They purchased their home three years ago with no idea it was in an area prone to flooding.

Maude said two rooms were rendered unliveable in her home following the first flood, resulting in an eight-week stay in a motel while the damage was repaired.

This month, the entire house was damaged by the flood waters. This had been devastating as she and Dennis thought such troubles were behind them.

If the council could not construct adequate drains to protect the area where properties had flooded, it had a moral responsibility to raise the level of affected houses at its own expense, Maude said.  

Dennis said they had made two insurance excess payments totalling $1500, as well as covering many other expenses related to the flooding.

“This has been a huge burden, and I don’t see why we need to keep paying out all the time,” he said.
He feels set up, saying when they purchased their home they were told Te Kūiti had not had a big flood in town for decades.
“But the world is changing, and we need to get organised.”
Spoken to away from the meeting, Denis said having had a long career as a concreter, he could see that the size of the culvert in Ngatai St, which drained Duke St, was poorly designed and too small. It needed much larger wing walls, plus a single large culvert rather than the present arrangement of two smaller pipes.
A woman at the meeting who is living in a motel following flood damage to her home said she was pleased in a way that a family had not been affected when her home went underwater.
“But one the other hand, it’s very tough being on your own and having to face weeks of living in a motel.”
Another resident Russell McKaskill told how his place went underwater in just 37 minutes and he narrowly managed to rescue his dog, which had been in a shed.
Russell painted a sobering picture of a potential threat to life from future flooding on the scale of what occurred on Sunday.
He pointed out that such rapid rises in water levels could mean residents, particularly elderly people, might not be able to get out in time.
Other residents expressed anger and concern over the drop in the value of their homes once the flood risk was added to their property files.
There were complaints over lack of maintenance of drains and that council or civil defence staff had not been around when they were needed most.
Some said that following conversations with council staff, it was evident some did not understand the design of their own stormwater system, as in what pipes were where.