KEY POINTS:
Barry Dougherty and his family had a dream - a dream that yesterday lay under a metre of water.
On the flooded 6ha lifestyle block where the Doughertys plan to build their new home, a container packed with family belongings floated in muddy water. The family paid $275,000 for the property just before Christmas.
"What can you do?" Mr Dougherty asked. "We thought we could build the family home here. But now you have to wonder, will they even let us build here?
"Will we even be able to get insurance? The water just kept coming and coming."
Mr Dougherty had been living in a caravan on a Mill Creek subdivision site on the Taieri Plain, organising the building of the family dream house in the next couple of months.
The plan was for him then to be joined by his pregnant wife, Cindy Davies, two young sons and his in-laws. A floodbank runs through the 6ha lifestyle block and he had been told by the Otago Regional Council to build on the Silver Stream side of the bank as the other side was exposed to the Taieri River.
But it was Silver Stream which breached its banks on Wednesday, sending water gushing through the property.
The container bobbing about on the property which held everything the family owned, from a bassinet and baby clothes to fridges and freezers, was lifted up by the water.
At the moment Mr Dougherty has just two pairs of shoes to his name.
"The rain just poured down on Tuesday and by Wednesday the rain was coming up to my feet," he said.
He woke at 5.30am on Wednesday and knew he had to get out. He managed to get his dogs loaded up and ploughed away from the rising waters. His kitchen, an old caravan, was swallowed by the flood, as were power and phone lines.
Otago Regional Council spokesman Dr John Threlfall said Mr Dougherty had been advised not to build on the Taieri River side of his property and to get independent advice on 1-in-100-year flood protection such as higher than normal foundations. The flood has been estimated as a 1-in-150-year event.
Mr Dougherty is hanging on to the dream of a family home. "I'll just have to build the house with higher foundations. I doubt if we'll get our money back."
- OTAGO DAILY TIMES
