Susan Franklin stands in the front yard of her house in Bridge St, Edgecumbe, which has flooded three times since she moved in last November. Photo / Troy Baker
Susan Franklin stands in the front yard of her house in Bridge St, Edgecumbe, which has flooded three times since she moved in last November. Photo / Troy Baker
A group of Edgecumbe residents have had enough of a stormwater drain that ends on their sections and floods their properties during heavy downpours.
Phillip McDonald, whose property the drain ends on, and Gloria and Ian Gibson, who live three doors down, say they have been putting up with the problem - and complaining to Whakatāne District Council - for the past 10 years.
Wednesday's downpour resulted in all their properties on Bridge St being knee-deep in water, with stormwater overflowing from the drain and pouring from one property to another.
"Ten years I've owned this, and nobody's ever done anything. Once a year I get it," McDonald said.
Members of the fire brigade arrived to pump water from the sections on Tuesday. Photo / Troy Baker
He said he had mentioned the issue to the council many times.
Gloria Gibson said hundreds of thousands of litres of water were pouring out of the drain on Wednesday, which swept across two other sections before flooding hers and continuing to properties further along the street.
The water hadn't risen high enough to enter the house, as the Gibsons had the cottage raised onto piles when they moved in, but the garden and everything stored in the garage was ruined. She said the flooding happened every time there was heavy rain, which could be several times a year.
"In the last 10 weeks, we've been flooded three times. My biggest concern is that we lose our sewerage, and our land becomes contaminated."
She said she had made multiple complaints to the council over the years and staff were aware of the issue, but she was still waiting for something to be done.
The intersection of Rata Ave and Puriri Cres in Edgecumbe had surface flooding on Wednesday. Photo / Troy Baker
Susan Franklin and Debbie Mason live between McDonald and the Gibsons. Franklin bought her property in November and has the section has been flooded three times since then.
"The last time we went and bought a pump."
Despite the pump, and those of neighbours operating at full capacity, her section was knee-deep in water yesterday and lapping at the steps to her house.
"My father is in there. He's 74 and he's got Covid," she said. "What am I supposed to do if he has to be transferred out of here?"
The sleepout in the front yard of Debbie Mason's home on Bridge St, Edgecumbe is below water level. Photo / Troy Baker
She said water had never entered her house "but, if it keeps going, who knows?"
Mason lives in a house belonging to her sister. The property has a sleepout in the garage, which was under several centimetres of water and Mason had a pump operating to try to remove as much water as possible.
The fire brigade arrived at the property while Local Democracy Reporting was there and pumped water from the sections.
There was further flooding on the corner of Rata Ave and Puriri Cres, with the road being blocked to traffic.
Gloria Gibson said a council employee visited her yesterday and gave her assurances the council would put a stop valve on the drain to prevent water from coming on to their land in future.
She said she couldn't understand why they couldn't have done that 10 years ago.
"He said to me, 'it's such an easy solution'. I said, 'I've been asking for 10 years.'"
The council was contacted for comment but had not responded by deadline,
On Tuesday, huge quantities of rain fell throughout the Eastern Bay, continuing overnight in some places.
According to the Bay of Plenty Regional Council environmental data portal, there was 122.5mm of rainfall in Edgecumbe over the 48 hours to 2pm yesterday.
Over the same period, Awakaponga had 138mm, Thornton had 122mm and Whakatāne had 117mm.
State Highway 2 along the Pikowai straight was reduced to one lane on Wednesday due to flooding. Photo / Troy Baker
As well as the ground flooding in Edgecumbe, State Highway 2 at Pikowai was reduced to one lane due to flooding, with stop-go traffic management in place most of the day.
On State Highway 35 between Te Kaha and Waihau Bay, traffic was reduced to one lane under priority give-way due to a slip west of Waikawa Bridge.
Whakatāne District Council also sent out a request for central Whakatāne residents to limit their water use due to high demand on the wastewater system.
