Northlanders battered by weekend flooding brace for second hit

The outside of a home in Northland’s Ōakura on Monday.
Photo: Kim Baker Wilson / RNZ

Northlanders already battered by the weekend’s heavy rain are bracing for another bout of rain.

Conditions were becoming increasingly wet and windy at Ōakura, one of the small communities particularly hard hit and now left caked in mud.

Elaine Lang had lived there for four decades and said she had never seen it like this.

“I’ve never had mud, it was a foot deep and we’ve never had it come in our driveway before.

Mud and debris outside a home in Ōakura.
Photo: Kim Baker Wilson / RNZ

“And the last time a bit of the ocean come over once, many years ago, Bola come over the main road, but this was all rainwater.”

But it’s what the next round of rain could bring that was weighing on her mind.

“So Wednesday could be a whole different ball game because the surfies are saying there’s going to be a 5-metre swell.

“And if that’s the case, and the tide’s building in size it means it’ll come over the road,” she said.

“So it brings a lot of rocks in down those last 10 houses and at the shop, it comes right across the road.

“So it’s a different kind of flooding.”

Photo: RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson

Lang knew the area and its properties well, she looked after the keys for many bach owners and had been going between them to see what state they were in.

“We’ve got keys probably to everybody’s bach here so we’re in and out of everyone’s bach, checking what damage it is and how damaged they are,” she said.

“There’s five gone today that they don’t want to stick out their holiday here, which I don’t blame them.”

Behind her home is a tall and scarred hillside where a slip has fallen, smashing across her neighbour Bevan’s property.

The slip above Bevan’s Ōakura home.
Photo: Kim Baker Wilson / RNZ

It shunted the boat a metre along the ground and up against his holiday home, but he said that was what saved it.

“The slip come down and it pretty much went under the boat and pushed the boat and trailer up against the deck and I think it stopped it going up against the bach,” he said.

He said he heard a big crack as the fence above gave way and when the boat hit the home’s decking.

“Never seen it like this before, I’ve been coming here for about 40 years and never seen anything like this.”

He was going to stay in the home, with the remains of the hill outside on his lawn, as the next weather system hit.

The slip shunted Bevan’s boat into his Northland holiday home.

The slip shunted Bevan’s boat into his holiday home.
Photo: Kim Baker Wilson / RNZ

MetService now had a Yellow Heavy Rain Watch stretching from 6pm Monday to 12pm Tuesday.

Heavy rain, thunderstorms and localised downpours were all possible.

Rainfall could approach warning criteria, or perhaps exceed that in some areas.

But as Lang pointed out, MetService also said more heavy rain was expected on Wednesday for which another watch or warning could be issued.

Outside the community hall, its interior in tatters after a slip ploughed through, skips had been set up for people to get rid of damaged belongings.

Skip bins at Ōakura have been put out and are filling up with the damaged possessions.
Photo: Kim Baker Wilson / RNZ

Down the road, Brian Eunson had dehumidifiers going inside his holiday home while a truck was sucking water from the yard outside.

“There’s a bit of water gone inside, but hopefully it wasn’t in there too long, so we’ll wait and see,” he said.

“I think the houses with the slips have probably a lot worse because quite a lot of houses have sort of had the cliffs come down behind them, haven’t they?”