Matata, one year on: The night our house was swept away

Michele and Paul Beach stand where their Matata villa used to be. Picture / Alan Gibson

Michele Beach still has trouble believing a house could float away.

"It was like being in The Twilight Zone."

A year ago this week , the mother of three found herself scrambling into the roof of her Matata home with her husband and children as torrents of water and debris swept their villa off its foundations.

The family watched in disbelief as, in the looming darkness of night, they saw huge boulders, trees and another house heading towards them.

"It was total disbelief," Mrs Beach said this week. "Houses are not supposed to float."

Eventually, the villa slammed into another house and they were able to escape but memories of a disaster that destroyed large swathes of their small Bay of Plenty town remain vivid.

"We're all feeling quite emotional at the moment," Mrs Beach said.

Since their tale of survival featured in the Herald a year ago the family have bought a new home in Matata with money from insurance and the Earthquake Commission.

Paul Beach said they would never go back to the beachside site of their old home.

The local council hopes to protect the area from future disaster by building a dam to catch debris in the hills.

But "it's too dangerous", Mr Beach said.

"I don't believe you can dam what went down. It's bigger than anyone thinks."

He said the last year had been stressful for him and his wife, particularly when the weather was bad.

"If it rains, we don't sleep."

The children, especially 2-year-old Jasmine, had also suffered. "Little Jasmine has just started laughing again."

Rob and Marilyn Pearce, neighbours of the Beaches, have spent the past few days helping their daughter after a suspicious fire gutted her Mangakino house. The fire came after the Pearces and close relatives had homes destroyed by the debris flows.

"We've lost five family homes in a year," Mrs Pearce said.

Five is also the number of times the Pearces have moved in the past year, going from rental house to rental house as they waited for a decision on their property's future.

The Whakatane District Council has now said it could take until 2008 to issue consent for rebuilding, so the Pearces have bought a new section where they plan to move the undamaged top half of their old house.

Some of their neighbours from the beachfront, including Bill and Pam Whalley and Keith and Kay Fergusson, have been able to move back.

Whatever happens next, the Beach family are now prepared, with a large orange digger parked outside their house.

"We bought a digger because, living here, you never know when you're going to need it," said Mrs Beach.

In Tauranga, others also struggle with the memory of May 18, 2005.

"I try to forget it," says Vladi Vladev, who lost his Vale St home in the floods and landslides that hit the city a year ago.

Mr Vladev, his son and wheelchair-bound daughter, had a narrow escape from the house as it was pushed off its pilings and over a stream.

Since then, the Bulgarian marine engineer has bought a new house, also in the suburb of Otumoetai, with money from his insurance company and the Earthquake Commission.

Another Otumoetai resident, Corinna Greaves, said she remembered the disaster every day.

She and husband David fled their Landscape Rd house minutes before it was crushed by three landslides.