An hour of destruction
Tony Crawford’s workshop is looking a bit worse for wear after half a metre of floodwaters accumulated there on Friday. Photo / Dan Hutchinson
By Dan Hutchinson and Chris Marshall
Houses were flooded, a man was struck by lightning and streets were inundated with floodwaters in an hour-long deluge across lakeside communities on Friday night.
Kinloch man Bruce Wilson is crediting rubber jandals for saving his life during the spectacular thunderstorms, which dumped 44mm of rain in the Taupō township.
The storm left thousands of properties without power for a short time and caused an overflow into the Waikato River of 150-200 cubic metres of treated wastewater from the Taupō sewage treatment plant. Fire and Emergency responded to six vegetation fires caused by lightning strikes.
It also left some homeowners with a soggy mess to clean up, including the homes of Raewyn Palenski and her neighbours Tony and Sue Crawford, on Tamatea Rd.
Floodwaters were chest high in Palenski’s downstairs rooms where her Argentinian boarders were staying.
It’s the fourth time it has flooded the downstairs rooms since Raewyn and her late husband Jimmy moved into the house about 46 years ago.
“First time (30 years ago) it was up over the light switches, second time ankle deep, third time ankle deep and this time it was up to here (chest height).
“We were watching the rain – all good, no problem - then all of a sudden it just blew up out of the stormwater [culverts] and in quarter of an hour [downstairs] was full.
“The nine-year-old (grandson) was up here ringing 111.”
She wanted the Taupō District Council to sort out the drains so it didn’t happen again, and has had Mayor David Trewavas over for a visit.
“Especially now that I am by myself I can’t take it any more because it is the smell and the noise [of the drying fans]. I haven’t slept much, I haven’t eaten much since then.”
Taupō Mayor David Trewavas said council engineers were having a “good look” at solutions to the flooding problems on Tamatea Rd and other areas and he had been “pretty impressed” with their response.
He said it had happened four times in the past 30 years, so a long-term solution needed to be found for the problem and he would keep an eye on progress.
On the whole, he thought the town coped well with the deluge and, as usual, the pumice soils ensured the floodwaters quickly dispersed.
“We got off pretty lightly, really.”
The other flooded residents on Tamatea Rd – Tony and Sue Crawford – were also keen to see progress.
Tony was in his workshop, on the wood turning lathe, just 30 minutes before the flood.
He has one leg and gets around on an electric scooter, so getting out of the workshop might have been interesting.
He said the the motor on one of his machines was probably destroyed and it would pose a fire risk if he did decide to turn it on.
While Friday’s flooding was bad, it wasn’t as bad as the flood 30 years ago which would have been up to chest height.
“It’s been going on for too long, 40-odd bloody years and we are over it this time.”
Once the surrounding floodwaters started draining away the fire brigade was able to return and quickly pumped out both properties.
Sally Coxhead, owner of Bloomin Flowers, also had her basement studio flooded on Friday and had to clear it all out.
“It was like a lake in here. You could have swum in it.”
Her mother Lynn helped out with a massive clean out over the weekend, lifting sodden carpets and ruined Persian rugs. The pair did manage to get the wedding flowers to their destination.
“By the end of Saturday we just sat in the shop and cried.”
They spent Monday putting the shop together and getting back to business to meet demand for flowers in the lead up to Valentine’s Day tomorrow.
While the downpour soaked the township of Taupō, it was very isolated and brought little rain to most of the district.
By Saturday, the only visible signs of the flooding were scoured out sections of the Taupō township beachfront.