Marty Sharpe
Octogenarians Herbert and Jessie Gardiner, of Avenue Road, Greenmeadows, stepped out of their bed at 3am this morning into 20cm of cold water.
The couple, both 85, called their neighbour Ninian Billington, who offered them shelter until the fire brigade arrived to take them to the Salvation Army hall on
Tait Drive.
The Gardiners were the first arrivals at the hall, which volunteers had readied for an influx of evacuees.
"It's unbelievable. I don't believe it happened. In fact I think I'm dreaming," Mrs Gardiner said, while warming herself in front of a heater this morning.
Mr Gardiner, who had lived in Napier all his life, said he had never seen flooding as bad.
Linda Kirby, also on Avenue Road, said she woke at 2am after heavy rain and looked out onto the street to see it clear of water.
"Twenty minutes later it was lapping up over our second step. We were pretty scared," said Mrs Kirby, who faced cleaning a flooded family car today.
Auckland Road in Greenmeadows was also badly hit, with five vehicles floating in the floodwater.
One resident, Kerry Davis, woke up at about 2.30am to find 30cm of water beneath her bed.
She spent most of the morning in the living room of her neighbours, Maurice and Jillian Prout's living room.
"It hasn't really hit yet. It will when my partner gets home and I have a shoulder to cry on," Ms Kerry said.
The Prout's house, like so many on Auckland Road, and other streets on the area, was just centimetres from being inundated.
"Any higher and it could have been really bad. I'm a little upset that it's not flowing away very quickly," Mr Prout said.
A line Mr Prout had drawn on his fence to show the highest level of flooding during cyclone Bola, was more than 15cm below debris left against the fence this morning.
