A West Auckland family have been left shaken after their home began slipping down a hillside amid heavy flooding overnight - while they were still inside.
Amber and Paul Rhodes lost all of their possessions after their house in the small coastal settlement of Karekare was battered by heavy rain, before collapsing into a heap on the roadside below.
Amber told 1News how she, her husband and their teenage daughter were forced to flee their home after hearing the thud of mud, sand and soil hitting the back of their house.
"We heard the impact of sand on the back of the house and I suggested to my husband and 14-year-old daughter that we might need to evacuate and shortly, that was followed by another thud.
"There was a big shift of mud and soil coming into the back of the house, at which point everything became a lot more urgent.
"I said, 'We have to get out of here' and as I said that, we sensed or heard the house shifting and all of this mountainside coming down behind us and I said, 'We've got to get out. Go, go, go!'"
Amber Rhodes described how the concrete steps began "pulling apart like in a movie" as they ran. (Source: Supplied)
She described how the concrete steps began "pulling apart like in a movie" and "disappearing beneath our feet" as they ran.
"My husband was behind me and he turned and he looked back and saw the entire house slide down the hillside onto the road."
Amber said the home, built in 1927, had remained with the family since it was bought by her grandfather in the 1960s.
Footage filmed after the incident shows the house flattened in a pile of debris, with sodden books strewn about what was once their home.
It was one of five Karekare properties damaged or destroyed in the slips.
Amber said while the family "all managed to get out safely", they were left shocked by the "devastation out here in Karekare which we've never seen anything like before".
She said while it was the "third or fourth major, major event" to batter the region in the five years they've lived there, yesterday's incident was "by far the very worst".
"These events are just getting more and more severe and more and more frequent, and it's absolutely terrifying," she said, becoming emotional.
"We have to do whatever we can to mitigate all of these impacts of climate change because there's no doubt in my mind that this is what it's caused by."
Amber said she and her family will be leaving the area following the trauma of yesterday's event.
"Thank goodness we're safe. We have the most incredible community of people and I'm going to miss them very much when I leave but I won't be coming back."
SHARE ME