Rescue from flood still vivid 20 yrs on
It is 20 years since a heavily pregnant Seilena Phillips-Edwards, her partner and their son were rescued from their Mangamahu roof during the Whanganui-Manawatu floods.
Monday, February 16, 2004. It is five weeks until Seilena PhillipsEdwards is due to give birth. She woke up about 6am to barking and mooing.
Drawing back the curtains, she saw the Whangaehu River had burst its banks and the water was nearly level with the front door of her Okirae Rd house.
She remembers the day vividly. Once the water came into the house, it started to rise swiftly so she and her partner Duane Edwards grabbed their emergency box and put it, clothes and towels in their son Michael-Xander’s indoor bouncy castle to keep them dry.
The couple started making a plan to try and get out to the road and up the hill on the other side, but realised with all the fences in the way and Phillips-Edwards’ hapu belly, it wasn’t possible. Down the driveway through the orchard was now too dangerous as it was flooded.
Standing on a window seat, the couple saw their ute float past and they decided to head to the roof.
“Duane was able to climb up the drain pipe and then I handed him baby, our dog and a bag with all of the essentials in it for baby. I wasn’t able to get up on the roof at that stage as I couldn’t get my hapu puku over the drainpipe . . . instead, I swam in and out of the lounge windows throwing stuff up onto the roof.
“The current was quite strong as it came around the corner of the house, but I have always been a strong swimmer and used the windows to my advantage as well to keep myself steady. At one stage, Duane yelled at me to get back in the house — I darted back in the window just as a huge tree came flying around the corner of the house and shot past the windows, narrowly missing me.”
The river continued to rise and once it was level with the ceiling of the old villa, she tried again.
“The current kept on taking my legs while I was trying to swing myself up onto the drainpipe but eventually I got up. Duane, while holding baby, tied together some of the towels for me to grab onto to help me get over the roof to where we had some cover.”
Not long after they gave 20-monthold Michael-Xander his breakfast, a Royal New Zealand Air Force Iroquois helicopter arrived to rescue them.
Phillips-Edwards says it was probably about three hours since the water first came into the house.
“The helicopter was able to hover just above the roof and we jumped in.
“The pilot said to not look down as we took off, but I couldn’t help myself — the devastation was significant across the whole area.”
They and Labrador pup Pango were flown to Whanganui Racecourse and then taken by the police to Phillips-Edwards’ aunt’s house in Castlecliff.
“It was eerie coming into town as no one knew what was going on just on the outskirts of town.”
Daughter Hinekura was born on March 31.
In 2005, the family moved to the Bay of Plenty to start a new life.
Their second son, Bennett, was born prematurely on February 4, 2003, and lived for five minutes in Phillips-Edwards’ arms.
When they returned to their flooded home, the couple found an undamaged photo of Bennett outside on the mud.
Edwards works at the Port of Tauranga and Phillips-Edwards is an executive assistant.
The couple married in Whanganui in 2009 and have been together for 25 years.
Their other sons are Pakohe, 9, and Morehu, 4.
The couple plan to return to Whanganui to live later this year.
Michael-Xander is now 21 and expecting his first child with his partner Ella.
Hinekura lives in Queensland with her partner Manaia.