A Rotorua family has been forced to leave their home just four days before Christmas after it flooded for the second time this year.
Pukehangi resident Rebecca Brake and her family had just moved back into their house on Hoyte Place two weeks ago after a flood in May made the building unlivable.
“Everyone’s pretty miserable. It’s black water so anything that it’s touched has to go or be replaced,” Brake told the Rotorua Daily Post on Wednesday, the day after heavy rain caused flash flooding across the city.
“We’ve been told to find accommodation for another two months. All the carpets and all the flooring need to be pulled up again. And since it’s Christmas there’s not a lot of people around who can do the job.”
The Brakes bought the home in April. A month later, floodwaters swept through the house, leaving behind sodden floors, walls, ceilings and belongings.
The damage took seven months to repair, with Brake and her family having to find alternative accommodation.
“We just moved back in two weeks ago. It had a couple of finishing touches to go.”
Rebecca Brake standing in her flooded Hoyte Place home in May. Photo / Ben Fraser
Brake, who was home with her three children when the flooding started during Tuesday’s thunderstorm, could barely speak through her tears as she described the incident.
“I could tell the same thing was going to happen. My eldest boy and I moved everything we could. We moved everything high and as far as possible from any water.”
Then Brake called Fire and Emergency, which sent firefighters to help.
“They were amazing. They were just incredible. They came around and helped to stop the water coming in and tried to get the water out.”
Despite the family’s and firefighters’ efforts, the new flooring and carpet were not able to be saved, leaving the Brake family again without a home.
Flooding on Miller St in Rotorua on Tuesday. Photo / Andrew Warner
“We lost everything last time,” Brake said on Wednesday.
“Then yesterday we got told we’ve got to go again. We’re staying in a motel tonight.”
Brake said somebody needed to be held accountable for the flooding and the damages.
“This is people’s lives. It’s not just a house. People think we’ve got insurance and that makes it all fine but it’s not just about that. There’s an emotional toll,” she said.
“My kids have had to move around from home to home for the last seven months. It’s Christmastime you know?”
She did not know what the financial cost would be.
Brake said there was no accommodation available because of holiday bookings. While the family had received an influx of support from friends and family, she said Christmas “won’t be the same”.
“I don’t know who’s responsible. I don’t know. But somebody has to do something.”
The family were not the only ones looking for answers after Tuesday’s rain flooded more than 30 roads, stranded two women in their vehicle and damaged road surfaces.
Floodwaters submerged Glenys Ihaka's back garden on Tuesday.
Glenholme resident Glenys Ihaka has lived at the same address on Tilsley St for the past 20 years.
On Tuesday floodwaters rushed around her sandbagged home, going through the garage, the washhouse and the sleepout to submerge the hedges in her back garden.
Ihaka, in her 70s, said the flood was the third “really bad flooding” she’d seen since 2018 and the second this year.
“We’ve got five pumps working at my place but the water just pours down the drive because drainage is inadequate even in just ordinary rain.”
Ihaka said she and her partner had installed the pumps progressively over the last five or six years and had gotten used to sandbagging their home at the threat of rain.
This week their precautions were not enough. Ihaka spent more than eight hours struggling with “serious flooding”.
“The water was at least a foot deep,” Ihaka said.
“Our insurance company has been very good but they’re not going to keep paying. There’s nothing we can do. There’s nothing I can do.”
Ihaka estimated the damage would take six to nine months to repair.
“Wednesday, Thursday and so on will be cleaning up, moving the sandbags, trying to dry out things and sadly throwing stuff away.”
Ihaka said she had called the council multiple times over the years about the flooding.
“I want to know when will [it] take responsibility for the damage caused by [its] lack of addressing the matter. When will [it] apologise for all the stress caused whenever there is a threat of significant rain?”
Rotorua Lakes Council infrastructure and environmental solutions deputy chief executive Stavros Michael said the council would be happy to speak further with residents spoken to by the Rotorua Daily Post in order to better appreciate the causes and factors relating to flooding in their properties.
“We understand it is upsetting and frustrating for people in parts of our city where surface flooding is more likely when the system is overwhelmed, as occurred yesterday when we experienced 66mm of rain in two hours - just under 5 per cent of our annual average rainfall.”
Michael said the stormwater and sewerage systems functioned as they were designed to do.
“But there is always the potential for a rain event to overload the system and exceed the capacity of our piped networks. This is the same for any local authority system that does not have unlimited capacity.
Rotorua Lakes Council infrastructure and environmental solutions deputy chief executive Stavros Michael. Photo / NZME
“Urban stormwater piped networks in New Zealand are typically designed to cope with one-in-10-year rainfall events, with larger events catered for by overland flow paths, including the roading corridors. It is not possible for local authorities to guarantee drainage networks will cope with rain events.”
Michael said the council’s ongoing programme of improvements was focused on major stormwater infrastructure upgrades in the Linton Park and Owhata areas.
“[The] council’s current Long-term Plan programme includes investment of over $245 million for stormwater and sewerage upgrades and we are working on delivery of these projects across the city.”
Michael said changing weather patterns and increasing rain intensities were a major challenge and all councils now factor climate change projections into their future stormwater network designs and improvements.
“Existing infrastructure constructed decades ago did not include that provision and while it is progressively being upgraded, it takes many years to complete such upgrades, factoring in the community’s ability to fund these.”
