KEY POINTS:
Una Hawkins has tolerated the many floods that have ripped through Kaeo, the town where she was born and raised, but close to 80 years on even she has now had a gutsful.
Mrs Hawkins, 79, shook her head outside her home of 20 years and said: "I don't think I can put up with too much more of this."
Inside her villa, the flood waters from Tuesday's deluge had left a carpet of silt on her wooden floors.
Mrs Hawkins had not wanted to leave home, thinking the flood would be no worse than the one in March. By mid-afternoon on Tuesday, the water was again inside but higher this time.
She had been determined to sit it out but her niece, Gael Hona, had other ideas and alerted the police.
Mrs Hawkins was taken out by boat and now wonders whether she might be better off in other accommodation despite her love for the close to 100-year-old dwelling where she had lived with her sister.
Her despair is shared by many hit hard by the flooding in the small township, which has a river running through it and is at sea level in a valley near the Whangaroa Harbour in the Far North.
Near the harbour live Ken and Sharon Brinkley who have not been able to occupy their house since December.
Their first flood had nothing to do with nature - a pipe burst in their house. But since they repaired that damage, nature has struck twice.
"We just lay the new carpet in March when the next day we were flooded out," said Mr Brinkley.
This week's flooding has left the Brinkleys, who moved to Kaeo from Whangaparaoa to retire about three years ago, wondering what to do next.
The water swept through their home, completely submerged a car and nearly covered their garage.
"It is pretty devastating."
On Monday, Mr Brinkley shifted his sheep and a caravan to higher ground. He knew the property was flood prone, but not on the scale he has seen this year.
"I saw photos when Cyclone Bola went through and it was only ankle deep in the house, I thought we could cope with that in a one-in-50-year flood."
Like others, Mr Brinkley is concerned climate change will result in more frequent and severe storms.
"The floods are getting worse. It's unbelievable. The weather patterns are changing." A shift engineer at the Sanford oyster-processing factory, Mr Brinkley was too busy clearing up the mess there to check his lifestyle block closely.
Besides, even after much of the floodwaters had receded, his driveway was still knee deep.
Across the paddock, the Kaeo Rugby Club remained surrounded by water, up to its tills inside.
Like the local bowling club and a restaurant, it had only just been refitted after the March floods.
The community was yesterday busy cleaning up all over again, even school children on their holidays.
Laura Barker, 15, left Kerikeri early to help out at Kaeo Primary School where her father is the principal. Her first job was carrying out sodden mattresses from the school hall.
In Kaitaia, 120 people crowded into an emergency welfare centre set up in Kaitaia College when a local stream flowing into the flooded Awanui River burst through stopbanks.
About 70 elderly residents in the Switzer Residential Home were evacuated to the college as a precaution and the Far North District Council organised the evacuation of pensioners from 14 council flats in nearby Oxford St.
The flats may be damaged beyond repair.
The long-term options to accommodate the residents are being investigated by welfare agencies.
Two Army Unimog vehicles were in Kaeo and two in Kaitaia with a total of about a dozen soldiers to help emergency service recovery and welfare teams reach areas still surrounded by floodwater.
The council estimated yesterday that residents in about 50 households throughout the Far North district had been displaced because of severe flooding and are likely to need emergency welfare help.
Kaeo's sole charge police officer, Daniel Cleaver, said a couple of hundred people had also been left cut off from transport routes around the coastal settlements east of Kaeo because of slips.
On the other side of the Whangaroa Harbour, residents Kevin and Jean Saunders have been told they are not allowed to return home because of a slip that has come down behind their house.
The Totara North house will have to first be inspected by a building inspector.
Mr Saunders said he did not realise the 12-year-old insured house was in danger until he heard big bangs like detonators going off.
