Source: Radio New Zealand
An Ōtorohanga mum of four waded through knee-deep water in the early hours of Saturday morning to raise the alarm of flooding with her neighbours.
The South Waikato town was put into a State of Emergency shortly before 1am on Saturday as torrential rain lashed out on the region.
The block of flooded homes off Phillips Avenue. RNZ/Marika Khabazi
About 80 people were evacuated across homes on Phillips Avenue, Rangiatea Road, Kio Kio Station Road, a marae, and a camping site, sheltering at Te Kotahitanga Marae or with friends.
Trish Osterman said the rain had eased on Friday night when she went to bed, and she didn’t expect that things would pick up again in the early hours of the morning.
Trish Osterman’s flooded home in Ōtorohanga. RNZ/Marika Khabazi
She said she was woken about 3am by the sound of water gurgling.
When she went out and saw her street flooded, she decided to go door to door knocking on her neighbours’ homes to warn them, wading through water that was already knee deep, in her gumboots.
Trish Osterman, Otorohanga Kindergarten teacher and mum of four. RNZ/Marika Khabazi
“I did have to take a light with me, because you couldn’t see through the water, it was pretty murky it was dark, really hard to wake people up, had to do a lot of banging on windows, obviously everyone was sleeping…but eventually they did wake up.”
Osterman’s eldest son Callum called Fire and Emergency for help, as she was alerting the neighbours, and the family of six were able to shelter at a friend’s house for the night.
Trish Osterman’s eldest son Callum. RNZ/Marika Khabazi
Returning to her house on Saturday morning, Osterman said the water had risen to about 2 inches deep across her rooms, before slowly dropping throughout the day.
Water levels receded slowly throughout Saturday, but as of Saturday afternoon, large puddles remained surrounding some homes on Phillips Avenue, the local school was still surrounded by water, and many paddocks remained inundated.
The mayor said in his update this morning that the weather event in the Otorohanga district and wider region was significant, with about 150mm-300mm of rain recorded within the period of an hour.
The Osterman family’s flooded backyard RNZ/Marika Khabazi
The family’s backyard remained flooded on Saturday, and their garden where Osterman’s eight-year-old son planted pumpkins and watermelons has also been soaked in contaminated flood waters.
The weekend flood has devastated Otorohanga and its surrounds, claiming the life of a man who was trapped in a submerged car at Puketotara on State Highway 39, about 7 kilometres south of Pirongia.
RNZ had also spoken to an Otorohanga man who had to be evacuated by boat after finding himself in waist deep water in his bedroom.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand