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A pregnant Northland woman is overwhelmed at the generosity of her workmates, who have raised more than $2000 after her rented Whakapara home and possessions were ruined by recent floods.
Frances Bell, 19, was at work at Webb Ross Lawyers in Whangarei when she got a call from her partner, Troy Keogh, a contractor, about 11.30am on March 29 as a one-in-150-year deluge hit Northland.
"He went home because he got rained off work," Ms Bell said. "He rang me and said, 'I can't see the paddocks'."
The couple's one-storey rental home is two metres off the ground. The floodwaters kept rising and the phone calls kept coming.
"Pretty soon he was up to his waist [in water]," Ms Bell said.
She asked her partner to try to save as much as he could from the water.
"To start with he just put stuff up on the beds but pretty soon it [the flooding] got up and over them and the beds were floating in the water."
She then called the landlord, who - with the help of a neighbour - took a kayak out to the house to rescue Mr Keogh.
Of the damage, Ms Bell said: "Everything was ruined - beds, drawers, the cot we'd bought for the baby."
Ms Bell, who is due to give birth in July, said the response from her workmates had been better than she had hoped for.
"Everyone at work has just been awesome," she said. "And the company is matching what they're raising, dollar for dollar."
- NORTHERN ADVOCATE
