As South Islanders assess the damage of recent flooding and continue the clean up, some families are asking their local councils to do more to prepare for future weather events.
New Zealand's largest insurer IAG is calling for an immediate and multi-organisation approach for our flood prone areas, and Fair Go is inundated with calls for help.
Karmel Kay and her family moved to Rangiora in January, and since then they've flooded twice. She says the flooding stems from the Waimakariri District Council pipes, down her street, that can't handle the amount of water coming through.
"The water travels down our driveway towards the garage door and it gets really quite deep there," she said.
Kay understands there are others worse off than her, but still feels council needs to step up.
Meanwhile, the Urlich family in Waihi is also dealing with its local council about flooding. In the last 10 years they've flooded seven times, including three weeks ago.
"It comes down the driveway at the front, running like a stream," said Jason Urlich.
His wife Sacha said: "you'd wade through it, with a kayak."
They say part of the problem is the Hauraki District Council drainage out the front on their street, which can't handle the downpour.
"Well now we think here we go again and just kind of shrug your shoulders and give up, you know," Jason said.
Both families are doing what they can to prevent any more damage to their properties.
"We've bought sandbags and sheets of plastic and tubes of silicon to try and seal up the garage," Jason said.
"We try and pump it away but there’s only so much one pump can do when it’s really bad."
The Urlich family say they've been trying to get council to help them with drainage since 2018, another major year of flooding.
They say the council has sent people out to assess their property and some plans for drainage were drawn up by a council contractor, but nothing ever came of them. They even had a visit from Waihi's mayor, Toby Adams.
"I really feel like we’ve been let down," said Jason.
Kay asked her council for help after they flooded in February, and says she got a phone call three weeks later saying they were looking into it but they were really behind.
She too got the mayor involved, and feels only after that, she got a response from council.
Kay says council sent out a drainage expert who basically said they wouldn't be able to fix the issue for a few years.
The Urlich family have also had to lean on their insurance company a lot, and say every time they've been flooded it’s cost at least $1,000 on insurance excess.
The Insurance Council understands the frustration and advises people to call your insurer first if you have a flooding event.
It also says taking photos of anything you need to dispose of is key, and to mark on your wall or fence where the floodwaters come up to.
When it comes to your belongings, it says take extra care around electrical equipment and wiring, and if you can, move your car to higher ground before any forecast weather event.
Both the families that shared their problems with Fair Go have seen some progress.
Last year, Hauraki District Council installed more pipes at the front of the Urlich family home, which took care of the flooding at the front, but not at the back of their house.
Council chief executive Langley Cavers says "in many places, the road network is used as the pathway for the overflow, in this case due to the low lying nature of the land the overflow goes through private property".
But he also says last year's storm water upgrade should reduce surface flooding, and it has.
Jason says since the pipes at the front have been installed, they haven’t had any water come down the driveway.
Last week, while Fair Go was filming, council contractors showed up to dig behind the Urlich family house, but this is four years in the making.
A council contractor drew up plans in 2018 to reinstate a drain at the bottom of that hill that was covered over.
The Urlich family see the uncovering of that drain as the ultimate fix to stop the water coming into their property.
Langley says it’s not normally responsible for controlling that runoff "however last week council after getting the adjacent landowners approval installed a swale and drain".
In the case of Kay, the Waimakariri District Council says she's one of 1300 flooding requests for it to investigate, but nonetheless have come through for her.
Rangiora's mayor and some councillors visited the Kay family this week and they're going to start surveying in the next three weeks with the hopes of having the pipes sorted before Christmas.
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