Tauranga businesses not blaming city council for flooding

Daryl Horn, from Sign Source Ltd, did not expect the council to have to fix the water damage inside one of the storage units where he worked in Oak Lane. Photo / John Borren

Judea businesses badly damaged by flooding after the king tide say the flooding was unavoidable with one describing it as a "once in a blue moon" incident.

David Matthewson managed the storage units on Oak Lane and did not believe the Tauranga City Council could have done anything to avoid or prevent the major flooding on January 5.

Instead, Matthewson believed the flash flooding was due to the size of the tide which was backed up by severe winds.

"Those businesses are so close to the harbour and you cannot control the tide," he said. "It is a king tide which is once in a blue moon. I don't think there was anything anybody could have done."

Matthewson said the units escaped with minimal water damage and believed it was the first time businesses in Oak Lane had been flooded that badly.

"On May 18, 2005, there was water everywhere all over Tauranga but it never went into any of our buildings," he said.

Daryl Horn, from Sign Source Ltd, said in future he would be marking every expected king tide on his calendar so he would be prepared.

"If this [Oak Lane] was ever developed it would have to be raised," he said.

Horn said David Matthewson had alerted him to the flooding and when he assessed the damage the water was at shin height.

"I have been here 11 years and I have never seen flooding like the weekend," Horn said.

Bay Twisters' Dorne Mason said some of their gym boards were damaged and they had to remove the carpet after water came rushing in on January 5.

"We managed to get a lot of the gym equipment upstairs ... we were quite lucky," she said.

Mason was now waiting to hear from the insurance company regarding the cost of the damage.

"It was the king tide plus the winds," she said. "Once it got to the door it just kept coming in."