A house bus was among the properties damaged during the Waimarama floods in 2011. Photo / Bayden Barber
Ten years ago today, Sophie Siers and Andy Tait-Jamieson drove a quad bike 5km to Waimarama Beach to find their swept-away belongings had beaten them there.
The immense power of the 200mm of floodwaters that tore through overnight has ensured that April 28 remains a day etched in the memory of the Hawke's Bay community, even a decade later.
Siers and Tait-Jamieson, of Te Apiti Rd, awoke that morning to discover their home – the lowest point in the valley – had been surrounded by debris.
The pair were among over 100 households to be evacuated after the Pouhokio Stream, often little more than a trickle, burst its banks and swept logs and silt through the streets of the seaside paradise.
More than 100 farms received damage, 66 homes were red-stickered and 16 properties experienced internal flooding.
Siers said while the inside of their family home remained undamaged, floodwater was just a centimetre from entering the house.
"We were the epicentre," she said. "Our house was in the river."
The now Hastings District councillor for the Kahuranaki Ward said their porch was left empty of belongings, before concerns soon turned to the farm.
"When we got up at 6am, we could see two of our horses stranded on a raised bit of land," she said.
"There was a huge amount of damage and all the silt went under the house – it was an $18,000 job to have it all removed."
Siers and her family eventually made their way down to the beach where they found their belongings which had drifted down the newly formed river.
"We even found gumboots and shoes in the surrounding paddocks in the coming weeks," she said.
The diverted river also raged through Siers' sheds causing damage to their farming machinery and writing off both the family cars.
"The whole property had dozens of people out here for weeks just digging and digging," she said. "But the lasting damage was scars on the heart."
Fellow councillor and local Bayden Barber was among a number of locals who saddled up and travelled around the village on horseback after roads and bridges were severely damaged.
The Waimarama resident was soon to identify his first point of call - Waimarama Marae.
"It started to drizzle, got stronger and then didn't stop for a week. In the end, the amount of water coming off the hills was scary," he said.
Barber, who lives atop a hill, avoided damage to his property but was quick to offer his home as a safe haven for the community.
"We were able to use horses and a harvester tractor to get the kaumātua out of danger and up to our place, where they stayed for a few days," he said.
"They came with what was on their back – they didn't have enough time to grab a bag or anything."
Barber said not everyone was as lucky, with some losing their belongings, vehicles and homes altogether.
"Some families living in buses near the stream had to evacuate and their homes were upside down in the water," he said.
"Even the horses were reluctant to go down the main roads which had become fast-flowing rivers."
The Rural Support Trust, Civil Defence teams, army, firefighters and police were all eventually deployed in the clean-up mission that followed.
Siers said that, with increased long periods of dry and periods of heavy rain, concerns will always remain after suffering "experiential trauma".
"Every time it rains I wake up in the middle of the night and think about how much is expected," she said.
"Once you've experienced it, you know it's a real possibility and remember how it feels. And being the lowest point in the valley and living next to a river is a horrible feeling."