Ten years ago on this date, I was at a 50th birthday party on a Saturday night, reasonably impervious to the rain pelting down until it came to get a taxi home.
It rained all the next day as well. By Monday, the persistent downpour had turned to flooding and
reports of damage around the Rangitikei, Manawatu and Wanganui regions were coming in.
Between February 14 and 17 the deluge - up to 300mm in two days in some places - fell on land already saturated from previous downpours.
I worked at the time at the Manawatu Standard. Palmerston North was unscathed in comparison, and it was not until I got a helicopter ride over the district that I saw the scale of the devastation.
The Rangitikei was almost one big lake. The helicopter was being used to rescue cattle that had been stranded. One by one they were airlifted from small islands to the safety of paddocks miles away.
