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A NAME YOU CAN TRUST! Thursday, March 16, 2017
Vol 46, No 11
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DISASTER: Many families, like the Hensons, woke to find extensive flooding on their property, a lot of damage and dead livestock floating by.
‘Like waking up in a river’ Wild weather forces families to flee By KELLY TEED
T
uesday night was a standard one for Grant Henson and his family. Like most of us, he went to bed listening to the rain pound on the roof. Just a few hours later at 5.45am, he and his wife woke up to thighdeep water outside their house. Drowned sheep were floating past, the rain was continuing to pour and it was the beginning of a five hour “adventure”, Mr Henson said, recalling it was “like waking up in a river”. Mr Henson and his wife woke their four children – a 7-monthold, 3-year-old, 11-year-old and a 12-year-old – and rescued his dogs from the shed where they were shut in and waited to be rescued. Rescue came in the form of their landlords chevy dodge truck
but at a cost – the truck was completely written off in the rescue as the water damaged the engine. The next day, Mr Henson returned to the property with a friend and surveyed the damage. While the house itself remained dry, the shed was a write off. Mr Henson estimates around $10,000 of equipment was ruined by the flood, but the memories lost in the flood will be harder to replace. He said they lost memorabilia and “a couple of old laptops which needed to be fixed and had memories of our older children on them.” Three vehicles were also damaged beyond repair by the water and while the Hensons had vehicle insurance, they didn’t have contents insurance. In a silver lining, community spirit has shone through. The house on Clevedon-Kawakawa
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rainfall washed large amounts of debris into the Ardmore Water Treatment Plant, which supplies up to two thirds of the Auckland region’s water. Watercare chief executive Raveen Jaduram said the plant is continuing to operate at half its capacity due to the “unprecedented” level of silt in the water.
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Road is currently uninhabitable and the Henson family is living in a granny flat on offer from local residents until next Wednesday. Contacts from the local church where Mr Henson’s wife takes their children to playgroup three times a week have come to the rescue with donations of dinners, groceries, supermarket vouchers and offers of temporary accommodation. “We haven’t had to cook a meal since the flood...people are awesome,” said Mr Henson. A Givealittle page had also been created by a friend which Mr Henson said at last count had raised around $3500. Watercare is calling for Auckland residents to continue to reduce their water usage to avoid a city-wide boil water notice being issued. Last week’s “off-the-chart”
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