Fifth time flooded –but bouncing back

Right in the path of a soaking for the fifth time, MTA member Russell Green from Puhoi, north of Auckland, knows the drill when weather alerts go out.

But Auckland’s anniversary weekend flooding was something else - the worst Russell’s endured during his decades in business.

“Everything in my workshop has gone under, so this will be my biggest and most substantial loss ever.”

Russell owns Puhoi River Motors, he’s the local Volunteer Fire Service Chief, and as the name on his business says, it’s right on the banks of the river, so he’s no stranger to the potential danger of flooding.

From past experiences he knew to be prepared and knew the drill, but the onslaught of water this time proved for future events he needs to do more, as this time he is facing a total loss of equipment and stock.

“I have had four big floods in the past, but this is the biggest and the most significant; this one was a doozy, the other ones were 1.2 metres but this one was 2.5 metres!”

His estimate post-flood is he has probably lost close to $100,000

Customers cars first

Even in an emergency Russell put the customers first and made sure their cars were safe, both for their sakes and his.

“I know from experience that the one that bites me in the arse is customers’ cars; although they have got their own insurance it is an awkward conversation to have. So my first three-quarters of an hour involved moving the 13 cars and trucks out of my yard and by the time I got back to my workshop the water was coming in.

“Cars are always the controversial thing with customers, they are worth nothing ’til they flood and then they are worth $10,000.

“I put stuff up to the known flood height above 1.2 metres, closed the doors and then got f**kin’ absolutely nailed,” he says. Thankfully, this time Russell didn’t lose any customer vehicles, but he does have two cars up on the hoist at 2.5 metres and can’t get to them yet because there’s no power. He hopes they are ok.

Little warning

The weather warnings did say it was going to rain a lot, but Russell hopes in the future there might be a bit more detail.

of stock and he suggests that’s an area where workshops need to be a bit smarter when recording stock levels.

And with such a significantly high water level through the building this time round, there are other challenges.

“I can’t even open the doors; the water has gone through the switchboard and all the electric motors, and my compressor was turned upside down so I have had to get the pole fuse pulled so the electrician can get started.”

“To be fair, MetService did put out a post that there was going to be significant rain. The interesting thing is I am on the Civil Defence website where they send reminders and warnings out and none of that stuff came through.

“There were no red flags saying this was going to be big.”

But with his past experience, Russell set about getting prepared at 1pm on the Saturday afternoon.

“I decided to move the vehicles early in the day as I didn’t want to come and do it at 2 o’clock in the morning and by 3 o’clock in the afternoon I thought, ‘Oh f**k, here we go again’,” he says.

Strong support

What has made a huge difference to the situation has been the support from the Puhoi community for their local auto workshop and others from afar.

“It’s great to feel the care and worry from you all,” Russell posted on his Facebook page.

“The MTA have been really good, they have reached out, and Capricorn have reached out, and when you are sitting there looking at the mess and going, ‘Oh f**k,’ it’s really nice to know that people actually care, it is a comfort.

“You can’t do anything, you can’t give me a magic wand, but just to know that you are asking [after] me is worth heaps,” he says.

Under-fire Auckland mayor

Wayne Brown and local councillor Greg Sayers paid a visit and for Russell it was really decent of them to take the time.

Welcome distractions

With his own business a shambles,

Russell still needed to be there for others and being chief of the local Fire Brigade has been more help than hindrance. It’s taken his mind off what has happened to his workshop down the road.

“We were pretty limited with the brigade and what we could do, but we did have the station open on Friday night for people to stay in.

“There are people way worse off than me, and I feel for them, I can waterblast the workshop and get going, it is a whole lot of frustration for now, but I am going to climb back on the horse.”

Lessons and loss

Russell now realises things that could have been done to better prepare the business and is keen for members to take note.

At the time of writing, the battle had just begun to get the insurance company to come to the party.

“Over the last couple of years, I have dumbed down my insurance because I thought I had a lot of old gear and I never thought I would have a total loss, but I am looking at a total loss.

“There is nothing in my workshop that didn’t get affected, even my tyres have got big oil marks on them. Do I sell a tyre to someone if it has a big oil slick on it?”

And he is well aware it will mean a lot of frustration and a lot of paperwork.

“Every time that I have bought a tool, I should have filed the receipt or invoice in a folder, now I have to go and find them, and they will be somewhere in my emails, and it will take time.

“Like most workshops I didn’t do stocktakes very regularly, so now I have to go and find my stock levels and the insurance companies will want proof.

“There will be a lot of work in the next few weeks to document and categorise everything.”

Then there is the physical side of getting the doors open again and making the business functional, with electricity a priority.

“I spent around seven minutes on the phone to Mercury and although that isn’t long, it is when you are trying to get things done, it is just a pain in the arse.”

No one is immune

He also has a word of caution to members: events like this can happen without warning and with more and more unpredictable weather patterns, they should all be prepared.

“People shouldn’t think it will never happen; it can happen and with what Greta Thunberg was saying, I think there is an issue with global warming, and we shouldn’t ignore it.”

Now that it’s over and the cleanup has begun, it is “onwards and upwards”, for resilient Russell.

“What else do you do?”

“I am going to keep going and I will have a cleaner workshop going back to it and it will be a test of my insurance.”