Nervous laughter masking utter disbelief is all that Beau Rogers could muster as he gazed over his Rotorua backyard, his ute submerged under a metre of flood waters.
Heidi Te Are said she first knew about yesterday’s Bay of Plenty floods as they were lapping at her yard. (Source: Other)
Rogers was one of many for whom yesterday's huge deluge in the Bay of Plenty city came as a total surprise.
"I don't know I'm still speechless," he said.
Ngongotaha evacuees have been moved to emergency welfare at Rotorua's events centre. (Source: Other)
"We live next to the river and over the back there the bank's actually given way, the river's just risen up, and over the back fence the water's just poured down, and within an hour it's turned into this."
And his car's in the background, half under water, what was the story with them?
"Um, you can have em if you want," he chuckled.
Curtis Hemana said the sight of his kids’ toys floating in water got to him the most, after he returned to his flooded home. (Source: Other)
"We've been here about seven years and never seen anything like this before, ever."
Fellow Rotorua resident Heidi Te Are said there was no warning at all before the floods were present.
"Basically I looked outside and saw that it was about 10 centimeters away from the door of my car so i thought ‘I think I’ll move that’," Ms Te Are said.
"But there was kind of no warning at all, no alarm, no anything it was just fend for yourself.
“Coming back today it was pretty much 'OK we're pretty much, we're homeless'.
"We are lucky we've got lots of family and friends and stuff but at the end of the day you come into your house that you work hard for, and paying your mortgage and all that and the devastation of mud through your house, you’ve got to salvage as much as you can for the kids."
Heavy rain caused at least 30 homes to be evacuated in Ngongotaha yesterday, and 32 people were trapped at the Agrodome.
Evacuees were moved to emergency welfare at the Energy Events Centre in Rotorua.
However, things were much calmer this morning, Mayor Steve Chadwick told TVNZ 1's Breakfast, following the rain which saw hundreds of calls to emergency services.
"It's very surreal, it's quite calm at the moment. We had rain during the night but nothing like the extreme rain fall yesterday morning," he said.
People had been "incredibly resiliant", Mr Chadwick said, praising their quick move to safety as it became apparent they were in danger from rising floodwaters.
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