The Tauranga builder whose offices and workshop were saved from flooding by the actions of a ''good old Kiwi girl'' wants to show his gratitude with flowers, champagne and chocolates.
The Tauranga builder whose offices and workshop were saved from flooding by the actions of a ''good old Kiwi girl'' wants to show his gratitude with flowers, champagne and chocolates.
''She saved my bacon, and I will not forget it,'' Belvedere Construction managing director Trevor Wilkinson said.
The water was only 10mm away from entering his Burrows St building when a woman who called herself Lucy squeezed into a flooded roadside drain and cleared the debris - allowing the water to drain away.
''I was blown away, she was magnificent,'' Wilkinson said.
The builder, who was restoring flood-ravaged homes at Edgecumbe, said Lucy was clearing rubbish that should not have been there in the first place if the council had removed it.
Helping to free the blockage was the woman's father, Anthony Holt, a technical adviser for a shower manufacturing company.
Holt said he had enough knowledge of pipe sizes and how they worked to know that he and his daughter were not putting themselves at risk - despite the council saying it could have ended in tragedy.
Switch Electrical office manager Jacqui Magill surveys water damage to one of the offices in the Burrows St building. Photo/John Borren
''I have been involved in health and safety for years. If I thought it was dangerous, I would not have let her go near it. I don't take chances,'' he said, adding that it was not a high volume drain.
Holt, who indicated that his daughter was publicity shy, likened the situation to coming across the scene of a car crash. ''Do you stand by and wait for the fire brigade to arrive or do you help out? We sorted it out.''
Meanwhile, Wilkinson said the council had just issued him with a revised flood zone warning for the property. ''They knew it was a [flood] bottleneck - now they're saying it is a lot worse than they thought.''
Belvedere Construction managing director Trevor Wilkinson. Photo/file
Water flowed more than a metre deep in the floods of 2005, and he had experienced four or five narrow escapes from floodwaters in the past five years. It included ''dodging a bullet'' in one of the cyclones this year when he had to supply his own sandbags.
Wilkinson said, in his view, the council had done little to improve the situation since the 2005 flood except to put Burrows St on the list of drains that needed attention. Businesses would at least have a chance with a bigger drain and pump, he said.
''Surely there is something they can do. They know they have a problem.''
He said he gave a council drainage engineer ''an earful'' yesterday and was told that the drains were not cleared because there had been no heavy rain warning.
Water entered neighbouring shop Indian Food and Spices before owner Kirandeep sacrificed some bags of wheat to restrict the damage to a small area inside the door.
He said the water was up to his knees in the middle of the road and waves created by passing cars pushed the water into his shop.
''It probably would have been a lot worse if not for her [Lucy]. She was a good lady.''
Water entered the offices of nearby Switch Electrical, soaking carpets and causing a tell-tale absorption bulge in some of the office furniture.
A woman was labelled a hero after squeezing herself into a flooded drain in an effort to save businesses in Burrows St. Photo/Kiri Gillespie
Spokesman Andy Bowkett said the council had doubled the number of drainage grates to two a few years ago, but the system still struggled.
''We have had water lapping at the office door half a dozen times since they improved the drainage, so it has not helped a lot. The area is very low-lying.''
Tauranga City Council did not respond to questions from the Bay of Plenty Times yesterday but in a statement issued earlier drainage services team leader Wally Potts warned that climbing into a drain to clear it during a flood was dangerous.
"When drains clear suddenly, it creates suction that pulls anything in the drain inward. A person in the drain could easily get stuck and drown.
"It is absolutely not worth losing your life to save some properties from flooding."
