RAINAWAY BRIDE!
Groom sends helicopter to save flood-stranded wedding
Being her wedding day, we needed to get her out. Andrew Buchanan
BBy Natalie Akoorie
rides are supposed to make a dramatic entry to their wedding — and Penny Claridge did just that after yesterday’s deluge threatened to play havoc with her plans.
Claridge and her two sons were stuck at Kitenga Luxury Bed and Breakfast on North Rd between Clevedon and Maraetai yesterday morning after torrential downpours on Friday and Saturday morning.
Groom Andrew Buchanan, a helicopter pilot, told the Herald on
Sunday that with North Rd closed at both ends Claridge’s arrival at their 4pm ceremony in nearby Ararimu looked uncertain.
“Being her wedding day we needed to get her out,” Buchanan said. “I fly helicopters so I just called a friend, Richard Stenning, and just got him to go and pick her up basically. It’s pretty cool.”
Stenning, who flies for Oceania Helicopters, collected Claridge and her boys, 11 and 12, at 11am.
He dropped the trio at his hangar in Ramarama and Buchanan organised friends to pick them up in time for her to get ready for their big day.
The couple have been together three years and were planning a ceremony at their Paparimu property but the weather forced a change of venue to the Ararimu Hall.
Together with Buchanan’s two sons, 8 and 9, the family were expecting 180 guests at their reception, including 40 children.
The pre-wedding drama came as residents around the Northland, Auckland, Coromandel and Waikato regions started a post-flooding clean-up after the second bout of wild weather in a week.
The MetService and Civil Defence last night warned there would be no respite today from the terrible weather, with high winds are set to batter the North Island.
Potentially damaging winds, gusting up to 120km/h, are expected to reach their worst in Auckland early afternoon, with risks of small tornadoes in coastal areas.
“High winds may bring trees and powerlines down,” Auckland Civil Defence operations manager Aaron Davis said.
Severe weather warnings for wind were in place last night for Northland and Coromandel as an- other low moved in.
Another burst of heavy rain will hit the Bay of Plenty, where a further 50mm to 70mm was expected to accumulate. The heavy rain yesterday left motorists stuck in flood water in Auckland and Northland and hundreds of homes without power in Auckland overnight Friday.
Festivalgoers in the Coromandel were evacuated from floodwaters yesterday, homes were flooded in Northland, Auckland, Clevedon, Te Awamutu, Huntly and Whangamata and the Auckland Cup was postponed due to a sodden Ellerslie Racecourse.
In less than 24 hours a month’s worth of rain fell in some regions.
At Kawakawa Bay residents were reeling from the month’s rain that fell in one night on Tuesday. Kawakawa Bay Kindergarten was almost destroyed mid-week after a tidal creek behind the building flooded, head teacher Lisa Carlin said.
More than 500 children’s books worth $3000, puzzles, pictures and CDs have been ruined by the downpours and associated flooding, which has also waterlogged furniture, damaged computers and upended outdoor equipment.
“We have to relocate the kindergarten and children to the community hall. It’s going to take about three months to get it up and running.”
At nearby Hunua and Clevedon, homes and farms were flooded and farmers lost hundreds of livestock to surging waters — which also took out fences and destroyed silage bales.
In the Coromandel, hundreds of revellers at the Sundaise Festival had to be evacuated late on Friday night after floodwaters threatened the venue near Waihi.
The Army helped evacuate festivalgoers, some having to brave water up to chest height to escape.
In the Auckland region, a seawall on Aramoana Ave in Devonport sustained damage and authorities laid sandbags on the shoreline to prevent more damage. Waiheke Island also had slips, one of which threatened a house.
And last night’s session of the Auckland Arts Festival show Power Plant was cancelled.