Rising flood waters threaten Taieri farm house in Otago
Mike Lord has a lake on his property and rising water under his house.
A week ago, both his Taieri farm and home were barely affected by the floods, which began on Friday.
‘‘There were a few puddles that was it ... and part of the farm in a low-lying area had water on it,’’ Lord, a Dunedin City Councillor, said.
‘‘I thought if this is as bad as it gets we can cope with this.’’
However, during the past weekend water steadily rose around his property.
To hold off the rising water he stuffed items including old pillows down drains to stop water coming back up.
‘‘That held it off for a bit, but then it started to come across the lawn ... and it now under the house.’’ It was still rising. Earlier in the week two pumps had removed water from under the house, with water leaving a small wet patch of carpet.
He hoped the water would retreat, and said the flood was the worst he had experience since moving to the Taieri Plains in 1988.
While ‘‘I’ve still got my house’’, Lord estimated half of his 160ha dairy farm was under water.
That was likely to have a big impact on farm production, possibly in the tens of thousands of dollars. The full extent would not be known for days, if not weeks.
The biggest personal impact from the rising waters was his beloved woodworking equipment in his shed.
‘‘It is just demoralising.’’
‘‘But I need to put that into perspective, I’m not dying of cancer, there a lot of people worse off than me.’’