An Omahu family finds that ex-refrigerated containers are becoming an option to live in while your flooded home is repaired. Reporter Gary Hamilton-Irvine has the story. Video/Warren Buckland
Since being forced out of their flood-ravaged home on the outskirts of Hastings, the Heperi family has been split up living in different locations with family members and friends.
Finding suitable accommodation has been front of mind for the whanau who have now received a generous offer from Tinto Containers.
Blenheim-based Tinto Containers has refurbished five shipping containers into cabins and wants to donate them to people hit hard by Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawke’s Bay, as temporary accommodation.
Omahu residents Te Rangi Heperi and Rebecca Kamau and their grown-up sons were blown away when they were offered one of the 12m-long containers, to house them as they navigate the insurance process for their yellow-stickered home.
“We were humbled, it just takes a lot of stress away from the unknown of where we are going to live,” Kamau said.
The family believes similar portable accommodation could help many other people displaced by the floods.
Te Rangi Heperi (back left) and Rebecca Kamau with their sons Manaia (front left) and Kingston Heperi in the donated container they hope to use for temporary accomodation. Photo / Warren Buckland
A site for the container, which does not include any plumbing or electricity, is still being worked on but the family plan to use it for bedding and as a family base.
“I can’t envision five of us living in this but this is a start to our new way of living,” Kamau said.
Tinto Containers stated the container had to be placed on a property with an existing primary dwelling to meet requirements.
Occupants can then access the likes of bathroom and kitchen facilities.
Hastings District Council has been contacted for comment about rules for portable cabins, and whether any resource consent processes are being relaxed in the wake of the cyclone.
Kamau has lived in her Omahu home since she was a toddler and her three sons have all grown up there.
The shipping container that will help house the Heperi family while they navigate the insurance and rebuild process. Photo / Warren Buckland
A flood bank broke close to the home on February 14 - severely damaging their home and destroying their neighbour’s house.
Kamau said they were going through the insurance process and deciding on whether to rebuild their yellow-stickered home.
“[The insurance company] is in a process where they have to disinfect the home, then water blast it, and dry it.
“I was given over a month for that to come to a place where they can make decisions on whether it is a build, renovate, or a settlement.”
Two of her sons, Manaia and Kingston Heperi, have been helping paint the containers donated by Tinto Containers.
The pair said they were impressed with the speed in which they can be converted, and would be interested in helping others build the temporary housing.
Tinto Containers owner Andrew Barlow, who is based in Blenheim but formerly lived in Hawke’s Bay, said many companies had come on board to donate supplies and time to help transform the five containers.
“Having lived up there and knowing how friendly everyone is, it is no surprise everyone is pitching in and helping one another out,” he said.
“I had the containers there [in Hastings] and the cyclone happened and I thought this is something we can do.”
Barlow, who spent two weeks in the Bay converting the containers, said three containers had now been “allocated” and he was looking for homes for the other two.
Tinto Containers will continue to own the containers but will let them at no cost, initially for a year.
If you would like to inquire about the remaining two cabins from Tinto Containers, contact andrew@tinto.co.nz
