Feilding takes brunt of raging torrents

By JAMES GARDINER

From the air, the scale of the disaster seemed unlimited.

The vast plains of the Rangitikei and Manawatu-Oroua River catchments resembled a vast watery landscape, a collection of lakes fuelled by raging torrents, swelling and bursting over fences, roads and hedges, surrounding hundreds of houses.

Distressed stock were trapped by water.

Feilding was just one of the towns affected but the multiple waterways that run through and around it made it the prime target of hours of unrelenting rain.

Residents were woken after midnight with water lapping at their doors and windows. By dawn much of the town was awash.

Taxi driver Don Beadle, who has lived in Feilding for virtually all his 64 years, had no hesitation in declaring it the worst flood he had seen.

Bartender Wendy Sherwill was evacuated from her home in North St by the Fire Service at 3am.

"The water was absolutely trucking through the driveway, but there wasn't really a lot we could do."

Ninety minutes later, firefighters told residents to take any personal items they needed and get out.

The normally placid trickle of the Makino Stream had risen to about 3m and was overtopping bridges and backwashing into stormwater drains.

The same stream that last summer dried up completely poured across streets, footpaths, lawns and gardens.

Feilding High School office worker Chris Walker was unimpressed. "They [the local council] said it would never happen again after the floods in about 1978. What a joke."

Schools and shops were closed. Parks, playing fields and motor vehicles were under water.

A house in Warwick St was completely engulfed, with only the roof and tops of the windows visible by morning.

In North St, where Stewart Dyke had a battle with the council over his plan to build a house on the banks of the Makino, the morning brought high drama.

The water topped the stopbanks Mr Dyke had built and also flowed in from his neighbours' property, flooding his basement and lawns.

The caravan he had parked under his deck was lifted like a giant buoy, pushing the deck up close to a 45-degree angle and threatening to smash it.

"It was like something out of a disaster movie," said truck driver Neil Hickmott, who came to help Mr Dyke.

Eventually Mr Dyke's son Graeme plunged into the water with a rope round his waist, trying to wrench open the caravan door.

Such was the pressure of the water, the handle came away in his hand.

"So he got a hammer and just smashed the window," Mr Hickmott said. Once the water flowed into it, the danger the caravan posed subsided.

On the town's northern boundary, the Kiwitea Stream had broken its banks and attacked the Kimbolton Rd bridge supports from two directions.

Sealing contractor Dallas Fraser said the speed of the erosion was breathtaking.

Eighty metres of the dual carriageway concrete bridge disappeared. When the bridge went, the stream-turned-river attacked the surrounding banks with a vengeance.

About 500sq m of land in front of the business of Mr Fraser's employer disappeared with a large implement shed containing grader parts, tyres and other equipment.

Its value? "I hate to think."

On the far bank of the river another 80m of land was washed away in just an hour.

By 3.30pm the erosion was threatening a farm house whose residents were completely cut off and had to be rescued by helicopter.

The rotor blades never stopped spinning for chopper firm Helipro. It had seven helicopters in the air constantly throughout the day.

Jobs involved flying people in and out of Feilding and Palmerston North, both of which were cut off by road, and rescuing stranded farmers.