Bubbling toilet alerts Whirinaki couple of flooding

Josh Adamson and Emmie Mulinder in what remains of their home in Whirinaki. Photo / Paul Taylor

Just over a week ago, a young couple were putting the finishing touches on their new tiny home at Whirinaki north of Napier.

Today the house sits empty aside from a small, muddy couch and a line on the wall, almost at the ceiling, that shows just how high the water rose when flooding hit Hawke’s Bay last week.

Emmie Mulinder and Josh Adamson’s house has been destroyed and they are shaken, but they managed to save their 17 beloved horses.

It was 3.30 in the morning when the sound of the toilet bubbling with water alerted them.

Outside, their paddocks were beginning to fill with water. By the time they had thrown on some clothes, the house floor was covered.

They raced their dog to their grandparents’ house nearby, on higher land close to the beach.

Adamson received a call from his mother, telling them his sister was alone in another house nearby and couldn’t get out.

They headed for her house, opening gates and calling to their horses as they went.

At this point, the water was chest deep.

They rescued a couple of neighbours on the way, including one who had fallen through her roof, taking them up to their grandparents’ house.

It was pitch black and the only light was a small one on Adamson’s hat.

“By this point, the water would’ve been over our heads so we were up on the fence rails climbing along them and just hanging on as much as we could,” Mulinder said.

“If we had wire fences we and all the horses would be dead.”

Josh Adamson waded into the water, tied to Emmie Mulinder by a garden hose and electrical cable, to rescue their horses. Photo / Supplied

At one point they tried to rescue one of the horses.

“We were trying to lead her, but she was getting pulled by the current, and it was either hang on to the horse and both get dragged away or let her go, so Josh had to let her go.

“We saw her float off into the distance and hit the shed and we thought it was the last time we were going to see her,” Mulinder said.

When the sun rose, they headed out to their water-filled property to retrieve the horses.

“Josh swam out to them, tied to me by a garden hose, tied to an electrical cable and we managed to get [the horses] through the gate and up onto the dry land.”

They say there was no warning. About 5 or 6 in the morning, they got one of the Civil Defence texts. But by that point, the water had already begun to recede, Adamson said.

The couple are surprised all 17 of the horses made it through.

Mulinder describes it as a miracle, while Adamson explains they were the lucky ones.

“A lot of other horse owners, their horses just got swept out to sea and they watched them go,” Adamson said.

The horses are all now being cared for at various spots throughout the region and one, Pinky, who was swept over the top of a deer fence, is at the Massey Equine Hospital in Palmerston North.

A Givealittle page has been set up to help the couple rebuild their lives.