17 February 2023 Rangitoto Observer

At her first viewing for a new flat, flood victim Liv Tomsen found she was one of around 40 other people in line desperate for accommodation.

Along with her five flatmates she has had to vacate the flood-damaged Milford home they rented. Water ran through the property, ruining furniture and personal items.

“We aren’t insured. We never thought we would have to be because we live in such a safe area,” the 21-year-old said.

Two fridges, laundry appliances and couches were all write-offs. So too, four cars towed away from their Nile Rd driveway.

Tronsen says but for the quick actions of the one flatmate who was at home and managed to cart televisions and other items upstairs, the flatmates would have been even worse off.

On the weekend the Observer spoke to the flatmates, they were dumping the last of their sodden and stinky belongings onto the footpath for rubbish collection.

Inside, where water reached hip height, floorboards had lifted. In the backyard, the fence lay flattened.

Luckily, the flatmates have family homes to return to while on the hunt for a new flat, after giving notice to the landlord that the place was uninhabitable. “It doesn’t even smell wet, it smells like sewage,” said Tomsen.

She was heading home when the flooding reached its height and got stuck by rising waters at the top of the street. “You could see the current. It was crazy. People were being swept off their feet.”

Eventually her flatmate waded up to get her. They went to help a 90-year-old neighbour who lost everything in his single-storey home.

The flatmates were able to camp upstairs initially, but downstairs

they later found faeces in water in a bedroom. The clean-up took a physical toll, with several of them feeling sick. Anthony Jones-Lewis said they developed a rash on their stomachs and chests.

A yellow-stickered two-storey home further down Nile Rd stands empty now, but during the floods its occupants opened the doors to neighbours to let them shelter upstairs.

Just a short walk up the road, Su-Yin Ingle’s family home suffered some flooding and a ruined car that she is trying to replace, but she said others were worse off

The mother of two – who got her young children into wetsuits and lifejackets to evacuate them on a paddleboard – said: “We were lucky. There are houses completely gone.”

Friends took the family in. Since returning for the clean-up she has met more people in the community which she said was an upside of the event. The need for people, especially the elderly, to not feel isolated was more important than ever, she said, as volunteers went door to door checking on needs. “When the community rallies, it’s nice.”

But what stuck with her most was the shock of what they had all experienced. “People walking around and just looking expressionless.”

Devonport-Takapuna Local Board chair Toni van Tonder said the extent of damage was eye-opening, with many homes out of sight down long driveways. With North Shore ward councillor Richard Hills she spent time going door to door to check on welfare needs.

Board member Peter Allen, who was also out and about in Milford, said in Trevaughn Glade alone, of 25 units, only five had people in them as of last week.