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As rising floodwaters threatened to wash away his home of four years all dairy farmer Peter Brake could do was wait, watch and hope for the best.
Mr Brake was yesterday cleaning up his 80ha farm near Whakatane after two nights of heavy rain in the eastern Bay of Plenty caused flooding, slips, road closures and forced several families to evacuate from their homes.
Nearly 250mm of rain fell over the weekend swelling the Waimana River which feeds into the Whakatane River that runs through Mr Brake's farm.
"To say it was pissing down was an understatement ... I did start to worry," said Mr Brake.
After moving stock to higher ground and using a tractor to dump mud in front of their doors to stop water from getting inside his home, the 54-year-old stayed up all Saturday night watching as the river edged closer to his home.
"It was a long night Saturday, we didn't get any sleep because we kept checking to see if things were okay.
"The water got over the first stopbank and then got to nearly a metre from the top of the second one, it was a pretty close thing, that would have been us if it had."
Environment Bay of Plenty spokeswoman Yvonne Rooney said the latest floods were Whakatane's fifth this year. Rain gauges showed some catchment areas had close to a month's rainfall in 48 hours with Waioeka at Cableway recording 234mm and Waimana 276mm among the worst-affected.
Ms Rooney said the Whakatane River reached 7.1m in depth at its peak and had a flow of 2174 cu m a second. On Friday it was 1m deep and flowing at 111cu m a sec.
Elsewhere, surface flooding closed parts of central Whakatane while 15 residents at Paroa and Fortune Rds, on the outskirts of the town, were evacuated from their homes after floodwaters breached a stopbank.
The residents were this morning cleared to return home after council workers repaired the 10-metre breach.
Emergency pumps ran through the night but the breach was now repaired, with strengthening work to continue today, Civil Defence controller Diane Turner said.
Most roads reopened today but several schools and the Whakatane boat ramp remained closed, she said.
In Opotiki about 100 Tauranga secondary students were put up in a marae when slips and heavy flooding closed State Highways 2 and 35 out of the town.
A number of United States exchange students also had a nervous night in the town before roads reopened yesterday allowing them to catch their flight.
