This is the weather that makes me nervous.
The anxious wait.
It says it's going to be a certain amount of rain but you
actually never know.
They do know it's coming.
The
relentless downpour.
And it has been relentless all across Aotearoa, like
in Whakatū Nelson.
And a few weeks ago at the Erlich's home in Waihi.
The water would come down the driveway probably about this
deep.
You'd wade through it.
You'd wade through.
Get a
kayak.
They've been flooded seven times.
And that I guess
all ends up down by your garage.
All in our garage.
Yep.
Coming
down the driveway at one point running like a stream.
New
Zealand's largest insurer IAG has called for an immediate and
multi-organisation approach for our flood prone areas.
But
while they wait for a plan where does that leave these
families?
Well now we think here we go again and just kind
of shrug your shoulders and give up you know you can't you can't beat
water when it's coming at you from three sides.
The Erlichs
have literally got water coming at them from multiple sides.
From the front, from their neighbour's house, and from
behind their property.
They say part of the problem is the
Hauraki district council drainage out the front on their
street which can't handle the water, so then it rolls down
their driveway and ends up in their front yard.
Their garage
bears the brunt of it and they do what they can.
We have bought
sandbags and sheets of plastic and tubes of silicon to try and
seal up the garage.
We try and pump it away but there's only so
much one pump can do when it's really bad.
We've tried getting
a generator and another electric pump in and pumping
it away within with two pumps but even that it's you know
it's not enough.
It's flooded so many times here.
They've
learned many a lesson about keeping things high and dry.
Some shelves that are steel so it's all up off the ground.
We've put a big retention tank to help catch the water that
falls on our roof so that doesn't get to the ground.
That
water was so powerful it lifted the tank up out of the ground.
The Erlichs say they've been trying to get council to help them with
drainage since 2018.
Another major year of flooding.
They say the council has sent people out to assess their
property and plans for drainage were drawn up but nothing ever
comes of it.
We had a visit from the mayor.
Um he's been um
very good.
From the service side of things and the actual
actioning of getting anything done I really feel like we've
been let down.
They've had to lean on their insurance company
a lot.
Every time we've been flooded it's cost us at least
$1000 on insurance excess.
Not to mention the mental toll.
The
insurance council understands the frustration and has this
practical advice.
If you have a flooding event call your
insurer first, do it early.
Take photos of anything you need to
dispose of.
Mark on the wall where the flood waters come up
to.
Take extra care around electrical equipment and wiring.
If you can move your car to higher ground before any
forecast weather event.
Down south in Rangiora I worry how
bad is it going to get.
Karmel and her whanau only moved into their
home this year and they've already flooded twice.
The water
will travel down our driveway towards the garage door and it
gets really quite deep there.
Her front lawn a mini pond.
I
understand that there's so much happening around at the moment
with flooding and in comparison ours could be considered minor.
However I feel that the council need to step up and be
accountable for their side of it.
She's talking about
Waimakariri District Council who handles the drainage out on the
lane she lives down.
Karmel says the flooding stems from
the pipes that can't handle the water.
Karmel asked the council for
help after they flooded in February.
I got a phone call
maybe about three weeks later saying that they were looking
into it but they were really behind.
After plenty of
chasing, Karmel emailed Rangiora's mayor.
Only because
of that, I feel I got a response.
She says they sent
out a draining expert who basically said council wouldn't
be able to fix the issue for a few years.
I hadn't heard
anything since.
She's done her bit stocking up on potting mix
but it won't stop the water from coming.
Yeah.
Back at the
Erlich's house three years of back and forth has seen some
movement.
Last year council installed more pipes which took
care of the flooding at the front but not at the back of
their house.
The council explains.
In many places the
road network is used as the pathway for the overflow.
In
this case due to the low lying nature of the land the overflow
goes through private property.
But it says last year's
stormwater upgrade should reduce surface flooding.
Since
that was put we haven't had any water come down the driveway.
Um and the neighbours have said that they haven't had any water
from there as well.
So in that respect it has worked.
And
finally the action they've been waiting for.
How deep are they
going?
While Fair Go were filming with the Erlichs
Council contractors showed up to dig behind their house.
But
this is four years in the making.
The hill behind their
property has no drainage.
It's a swamp basically.
Yeah.
Water
flows down here into the properties a council contracted
drew up plans in 2018 to reinstate a drain here that was
covered over.
What we want and judging on the last couple of
days I think we're going to get is for a drain that used to be
on the property behind us to be reinstated.
We see that as the
ultimate fix for us to stop the water coming into our property.
The council says it's not normally responsible for
controlling that runoff.
However last week council after
getting the adjacent land owner's approval installed a
swale and drain.
Time will tell if it really is the fix they've
been waiting for.
And for Karmel in Rangiora Waimakariri
District Council says she's one of 1300 flooding requests for
it to investigate.
But a result for Karmel.
I sent the mayor of
Rangiora and a town planner came along and then they've agreed
to have a surveyer come out in the next two or three weeks and
then hopefully they will have the drainage sorted by
Christmas time.
That's awesome news.
Yeah we're so pleased.
I
had contacted a number of times and there was not really much
of a response so I'm so grateful to Fair Go for coming in.
All
these families want is peace of mind.
I wouldn't be able to go away in
winter time and when I see on the on the weather forecast
that we're going to get we've got a rain warning or something
that I want to be able to know sweet we're happy as.