Henley: The Otago township that became an island
Monday, 24 July 2017
Chopped wood is scattered over the road, the main road is flooded and most of the homes are empty.
This is the scene in Henley – a normally busy rural village on Otago's Taieri Plains, which is now a ghost town surrounded by water.
Blocked at each entrance, one must navigate slips and downed powerlines to reach the township, on the road from Dunedin to Balclutha.
Andrea Brown was one who stayed put.
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* Ice makes roads slippery after flooding throughout Clutha
* Photos: Heavy rains, flooding across Canterbury and Otago - and some snow
* State of emergency declared in south Otago
* Flooding, road closures and sewerage leaks as rainfall lets up**
Despite having to wade through knee deep water to reach her home, Brown says she would not live anywhere else.
'Normally it's actually a beautiful place, lots of whitebaiters bait along the river and it's quite a busy place in the summer, beautiful country drive.
'Things happen and you just cope with them the way you do – you've got to do what you've got to do.'
She had been through floods before, but not like this.
Brown learned of the weather warning on Friday morning. By 1pm, the paddock was half under water.
Search and Rescue knocked on the family's door about 11pm advising them to evacuate.
The children were fast asleep so they decided to stay.
The power was out for several hours on Saturday morning. The family used candles and torches to get around.
Helicopters arrived early Saturday to chopper families out from the local chapel, she said.
The family can do nothing but wait for the water to go down.
'It's been an eventful weekend.
'I think we're actually quite lucky, our house is safe, we're safe, the cars are fine.
'A lot of people fear off a lot worse than us, so we're just thinking about everybody and thinking ourselves lucky.'
COUPLE TOOK BOAT TO GET DOG
Henley couple Emma and Hamish McGregor woke on Saturday morning to find water at every entrance to their home.
The paddock was flooded. One of their cars, a spa pool, motorbikes and some chest freezers were under water.
Emma McGregor laughs as she recalls the moment they knew they had to leave.
'A guy across the road came over and said, 'I've lived here for 25 years and it's probably best you get out because I've never seen it like this'.'
'We grabbed our boat and went over to the shed to get one of the dogs out . . . then back to the house, took whatever we could grab . . . and took our boat over to the bridge,' Emma McGregor said.
The couple have stayed with some friends for the last few days. It was a 'pretty overwhelming', hoping their home would be OK.
'It wasn't very nice knowing if the water was inside your house or not.'
On Monday, the couple could finally assess the damage.
The water left their carpet damp, but 'the house didn't get washed away, that's the main thing', Hamish McGregor said.
'We're pretty surprised at how much the water had dropped, so we're hoping it keeps dropping that fast,' Emma McGregor said.
'There's not really too much we can do at the moment until the water goes away.'
DOZENS OF HOMES EVACUATED
Dunedin, Timaru, Waitaki and the wider Otago region declared states of emergencies between Friday and Saturday and homes were evacuated as flooding took hold.
On Monday, Civil Defence said dozens of Taieri Plain properties, including at least 35 in Henley and two at Outram, remained evacuated.
The region's state of emergency lifted on Monday morning. Civil Defence said the region was now in 'recovery' mode after the rain caused widespread flooding.
Civil Defence opted not to keep a more localised state of emergency for flood-affected areas.
Two homes in Dunedin – in Ravenswood Rd, St Clair, and Serpentine Ave, Mornington – were still empty on Monday morning after slips on Saturday.
Slips blocking roads had largely been cleared from main arterial roads, but work continued on a slip at Harwood, on the Otago Peninsula, Dunedin civil emergency management spokesman Graham McKerracher said.
WATER STILL RISING ON FARMS
Philippa Lord's farm is on the southern end of the Taieri Plains. When the rain stopped, people assumed the pressure was off.
Instead, the water kept rising.
Lord said floodwaters came down from the north end and, because drains were blocked, the water 'can't get out quick enough'.
On Monday morning, they had a pump going every half an hour and were putting out sandbags to stop the water reaching their house.
She expected most of the 150-hectare farm to be covered and guessed it would be at least 1 metre deep in parts.
'It's still pouring out to ours and several neighbours' properties,' she said.
She had friends who 'will be under water for weeks'.
Her farm would not fare too badly because most of the cows were off grazing for winter.
Neighbours who had 'bunkered down for the winter' would be worse off.
'In these conditions, it's pretty demoralising. It's pretty hard facing calving when your farm has water all over it,' Lord said.
Farms were flooded on both sides of Stage Highway 1.
'We're divided by the flood-free highway. The highway doesn't flood, but either side of it is pretty bad,' Lord said.
DEBRIS CLEARED FROM ROADS
The Waitaki, Clutha and Central Otago district councils focused on repairs on Monday.
Otago Regional Council staff were inspecting flood-hit areas, clearing debris and repairing damage.
In Timaru, the state of emergency was lifted on Saturday afternoon. A council spokesman said the district's infrastructure 'handled the event quite well'.
The council was inspecting roads and clearing debris on Monday. 'None of our main towns were largely affected.'
Christchurch's state of emergency remained in place and would be reviewed on Tuesday.