Residents, businesses count cost of flooding across South Island

Samantha Gee of RNZ

When Kaikōura's Lyell Creek threatened to burst its banks, Emporium Brewing owner Paul Finney tried to barricade the doors with malt sacks to stop floodwater surging through the building.

In the end, his efforts were in vain, with water cascading over the top and into the business he and his wife had just put on the market.

"It was an amazing amount of water," he said. "It was never going to stop the amount of water that came in.

"Eventually, I gave up, turned the electrics off and, just as I was walking out, you could see the water starting to come this way from the back of the brewery."

The knee-deep water lifted a fridge and freezer, although it did not float far, because it was plugged into the wall. Glasses floated away, only to be found half-filled with water on the floor in another room, along with another half-filled bottle plonked on a shelf.

Finney and wife Laura were due to show a prospective buyer their brewery, mini-golf course and escape room on Wednesday, but it would now be months before it was again ready for sale, with ruined two-week-old carpet and newly painted walls in a children's party room.

While the water quickly drained away, Laura Finney said everything had to be treated as contaminated.

"Everything it touched needs throwing out, that's walls and floors, everything," she said. "You've got to assume it's contaminated water and anything it touched is for the bin.

"It's going to be a long time until we're up and running again."

Paul Finney said the bar was a write-off, because of its wooden floor.

"Water finds its own way, so there's silt through everything. It got everywhere.

"We're probably going to need a few skips."

The Finneys were familiar managing disasters, after buying the business five weeks before the November 2016 Kaikōura earthquake, and were fully insured.

"When it does come back to the market, it will be pretty much brand new," Paul Finney said. "We'll get there - there are people way worse off, it's just a business.

"The house is fine, we're fine."

Ken and Fran Henderson's Old Beach Road home was white-stickered after being inundated by floodwaters that had soaked the carpet.

Ken Henderson said they had little time to get their grab bags and go when they received an emergency mobile alert to evacuate.

"We weren't far off sitting down to have a sammie for lunch, the text came through, so all hell broke loose, believe me," he said.

He quickly lifted what he could above an estimated water-line.

"We had about 10 minutes to lift what we could and out the door, as the water was rising," he said.

Fran Henderson said it was upsetting being forced to leave at such short notice.

"I nearly died, when I looked out the door and saw the water coming towards us, but nevermind, we got out," she said.

Ken Henderson said the water quickly rose and was a third of the way up the wheels of their car when they left, feeling shattered and apprehensive.

"We got out just in time," he said. "It's a waiting game now to see how things are assessed.

"If carpets aren't removed fairly quick to start drying things out, there's going to be more damage. We've rescued what we can in the way of day to day essentials, clothing, toiletries, medications, you name it."

Real estate agent Janice Dreaver owned a supermarket that was washed out in Kaikōura's 1993 flood.

She was relieved the business district was still trading and saddened for home-owners affected by flooding.

"My son is currently cut off in inland Kaikōura," she said. "He's not past the bridge, thank goodness, that has caused a major concern.

"He now has the graders and diggers on his road to allow him to get out. He wants to get out to help people, he's part of search and rescue here.

"Our community is a village. It's very resilient, it's very strong and it really looks after each other."

Kaikōura District Council duty controller Al Lawn said at least nine homes had been damaged by floodwater, including two that were yellow-stickered.

He said the homes were in small clusters around town and most had been inundated by about 100mm of floodwater.

"We will now go through those houses and assess them under the Building Act," he said. "The key thing with homes with floodwaters through them, we can't guarantee that it's not contaminated water.

"It's more likely that it is and therefore there's a risk to people's health.

"We're still doing assessments in and around Kaikōura. If someone has had water through their house, we're really keen to hear from them."

Lawn said all the evacuees sheltering at Takahanga marae had left by Thursday morning.

Council teams were checking on people in isolated properties on the closed Inland Kaikōura Road, where power was still out to more than 80 properties.

Roading crews were working to fix major damage to State Highway 1, between Kaikōura and Cheviot, where dramatic drone shots captured by RNZ showed big chunks of road carved off by floodwaters.

The NZ Transport Agency earlier said it could take several days to re-open the key route.

Further south, Waitaki District Council lifted a local state of emergency declared on Monday, following torrential rain.

At least nine homes and six businesses flooded, with one house yellow-stickered in Oamaru.

The council said it would now focus on restoring services, assessing damage, and helping people whose homes, businesses and livelihoods had been affected by flooding.

A conserve water notice was in place for Oamaru, as well as for the Awamoko and Tokarahi supplies, and a boilwater notice for the Lower Waitaki water supply.

In Dunedin, the city council issued a dangerous-building notice for a property affected by a landslip in Irvine Road on Wednesday afternoon, following days of heavy rain.

Emergency services evacuated eight households, although a geotechnical engineer had assessed the site and the remaining properties were found to be safe.

A separate slip on Omaru's Glen Street saw seven properties evacuated.

This story was first published on rnz.co.nz