Water-woes in Woodville

This week’s heavy rain has frustrated and annoyed Woodville residents who have been subjected to multiple floods in recent years.

After three days of persistent rain, Woodville resident Rob Henderson was left watching the ankledeep water seep into his wood shed, man cave and across his carport on Thursday.

‘‘In my garage, everything was just underwater because it was flowing in the back and through the roller doors.’’

Henderson has rented a property on Weber St, in Woodville, for about two-and-a-half years.

He said his woodshed and garage were flooded about eight times in 2016 and about three times in 2015.

The flooding was ‘‘progressively getting worse’’, but this week’s deluge was the most severe.

‘‘I’ve never had it be so high in the shed.’’

There had been about 10-12 centimetres of water seep through his man cave, which was filled with couches and stools.

Although Henderson stacked items to keep them from being damaged, he said the refrigerator would likely need to be thrown out. ‘‘It’s bloody annoying.’’ There were about six other residents on nearby streets, including Hall St and Ormond St, who often had flooded properties after heavy rainfall. The residents were paying out of their own pockets – about $2000 each – for a storm water drain to be laid by contractors, in the hope it would solve the drainage issues. The Tararua District Council had also contributed about $3000 to cover the easements for the project. Henderson was hopeful the drain would solve their water woes. The contractors were expected to start work within the next few weeks, but the rain could potentially put a halt on that, he said.

‘‘It’s damn annoying – it’s wet and cold and stinks.

‘‘I’m going to have to bring everything outside and try and dry it all out – again.’’

Ross St resident Eric Bodell said his garage has been flooded about 48 times in the past 20 years.

This week was no exception, with ‘‘an absolute lake’’ forming across the back lawn and leaching into his garage.

Bodell runs a local radio station and was worried up to $10,000 worth of electronic equipment in the garage could be damaged.

He had stacked most of his equipment up high, but said if there was any damage, most of his equipment was old and could not be replaced easily.

‘‘The water is 370mm deep in the garage. It’s quite a lot of water."

He said the constant flooding was ‘‘absolutely frustrating’’.