It took nearly a month before she found out from Westpac Insurance and their underwriters, Lumley Insurance, that her house was covered by insurance, as Westpac/Lumley had changed her policy some months before the flood, saying she would not be covered for flooding (even though her home had never flooded before). The cover was only granted because Lumley is now owned by IAG who have a different perspective.
Although that was a huge relief, there were of course many unanswered questions. Will houses in this flood zone be covered by insurance next time? Will they be able to sell their properties? Will the regional council raise the stopbanks?
On August 11, IAG called all their clients affected by the flood to a meeting at the Wanganui Racecourse and an important debate began about the future of these properties.
There was good news and bad news. IAG assured homeowners their properties would continue to be insured. However, it was unlikely IAG would be prepared to cover new clients who applied for insurance for homes in this area. That makes selling these properties rather difficult when banks holding a mortgage require insurance cover.
Tireless Mayor Annette Main attended as usual and informed the meeting that the regional council is considering raising the stopbanks higher. This no doubt is some relief - until a 250-year flood comes along.
We have all read much about the stopbanks. Some argue they failed and actually caused more problems than they are worth. I find that total nonsense.
The stopbanks held and did their job - they simply were not high enough for this flood. They have, however, prevented flooding on many other occasions and, if built higher, are likely to prevent much more flooding.
Let us not forget that they also protect an important piece of highway up through the Parapara. Traffic cannot simply be diverted over the Dublin Street bridge, as this bridge cannot take the heavy traffic that often travels down the Parapara and along Anzac Parade.
Of course, once any stopbank is topped, it causes other problems but one fix to this is to embed a shipping container into the stopbank, which can be opened at each end to allow floodwaters to drain back out quickly when flooding has abated.
Another thought is that, perhaps, insurance companies might be prepared to offer interest free loans to those homeowners who have the ability to lift their homes and put them on basements. This would make the homes safer and limit future insurance claims.
My suggestion is also to replace the Matarawa Stream bridge on Anzac Parade with a wider and higher bridge that allows more water to flow under it, rather than it acting like a dam as it does now. This would also be safer for traffic as it is a narrow bridge.
While authorities are on the job, they can replace the Dublin Street bridge as well - it is past its use-by date. Labour and National governments have taken Wanganui for granted far too long and we have missed important new infrastructure like this.
While there is much more debate needed on these issues, at least the debate has begun and we can now start to make some sensible and important decisions.
Steve Baron is a Wanganui-based political commentator, author and founder of Better Democracy NZ. He holds a degree in economics and an honours degree in political science.
