The town that became an island
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.
Despite having to wade through knee-deep water to reach her home, Brown said 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 people 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.’’
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 friends for the past 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.’’
Yesterday, 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.’’
"There's not really too much we can do at the moment until the water goes away." Henley resident Emma McGregor