Flooded Katikati residents clean up after deluge

When water rushed through Bhupinder Bhardwaj's front doors, the Katikati shopkeeper could do little more than watch cardboard boxes and teabags float around his store in front of him.

Bhardwaj owns Spice Traders with wife Anu. Both spent yesterday cleaning up a thick blanket of mud and silt left behind after floodwaters swamped parts of Katikati.

"There's no power. There was so much water, water was coming out of the electrical sockets."

We have had floods before but nothing like this. It was like a sea out there.

Charlie Roche

Metservice recorded 53mm of rain in one hour in its weather station near Katikati on Sunday, between 4pm and 5pm. At the same time, the Uretara Stream burst its banks, overlapping the bridge and swamping State Highway 2 and buildings, including Bhardwaj's 100m away.

Bhardwaj saw the swollen stream rising and tried to clear debris from a stormwater grate outside his shop "but I couldn't do it fast enough".

"There was very heavy rain. The water came all of a sudden with a splash. We didn't have much time."

Within 20 minutes floodwaters outside his shop rose to his waist level while water inside reached his upper ankles.

Charlie Roche joins cleanup efforts at Katikati Firestone, which was blanketed in thick silt and mud after the Uretara Stream burst its banks. Photo / George Novak

Bhardwaj rushed to move bottom shelf stock on to higher levels "but it was too late for some things".

"Tea bags and boxes were just floating everywhere."

Bhardwaj has been in Katikati since 2001 and said he had never experienced such flooding before.

Katikati man Charlie Roche said the only flooding in his memory that came near to the weekend's events was in 1973 just before he got married, "and I've been here 50 years".

"We have had floods before but nothing like this. It was like a sea out there."

Roche joined his son at Katikati Firestone across the road from Spice Traders to help move trucks and equipment out of rising water.

Floodwaters reached so high in Katikati they lapped the fenceposts next to Katikati Firestone, Charlie Roche said. Photo / George Novak

Logan Roche said the water rose exceptionally fast at Katikati Firestone, reaching knee level inside his workshop within 20 minutes.

Like Bhardwaj, Roche moved everything he could to above water level.

"Our biggest worry was the trucks and cars going through, creating bow waves which were coming through here," he said.

"All that rain runs through town and creates a whirlpool down here."

Katikati volunteer senior firefighter Brendan Gibbs said the stream was the highest he had seen in about 20 years.

The brigade closed SH2 after a car became trapped in floodwater by the Uretara Stream Bridge.

"You had cars coming through and water was up to their headlights."

Gibbs said the sheer volume of water made it difficult for the brigade to help people in need.

"We had flooded homes and things where we couldn't do a lot because there was nowhere to pump the water to. The water was so high, there was nowhere to put it. There's only so much you can do when there's so much water everywhere."

Metservice meteorologist Claire Flynn said 53mm of rain in one hour was "huge".

"It's not often we see numbers like that."