The man with a flood plan
Hugo Young has a process he goes through when rain is on the way.
Young owns two houses on Eastern Tce, one of the worst affected streets in Beckenham, Christchurch, after two months of rain fell over the weekend causing widespread flooding.
The Press spoke to Young as he shovelled silt and who-knows-what from the gutter yesterday morning.
As soon as flood-level rain was forecast, Young began on his ‘‘practiced’’ process of raising his belongings off the floor and preparing the house.
‘‘I take off all the cupboard doors, take off all the main doors in the house, all the kitchen drawers, cupboard doors,’’ he said.
‘‘All the beds, raise them up, all the sofas – basically get everything off the floor. It’s a little bit practiced now, which is a bit embarrassing, but it’s either that or I accept the loss.’’
Floodwaters came within an inch of Young’s lower property, which was rented out to tenants who were away for the weekend.
He said this flood was slower than the 2013 flood that covered properties along the same stretch of road.
‘‘This one was slower. I woke up on Saturday morning and told my partner it was at the gate and high tide was at 3.15pm, so it was going to be close.’’
Young was recently granted consent to install a flood wall to protect his lower property from future flooding. He first applied in 2013.
‘‘They don’t like what they call water displacement, they say if we all displaced our water off our properties, it would compound the problem, which I agree with, but not everyone is going to do it, only those residents who have been affected by floods,’’ he said.
Young hoped something would be done to increase the Heathcote River’s capacity.
‘‘The [Christchurch City] Council and [Environment Canterbury] won’t do anything about the river in terms of dredging or removing the slumping from the earthquakes.
‘‘Residents feel that removing the slumping to return some capacity to the river would be a good start.’’