ROGER MORONEY
When a slip crashed down onto the back of a house in Battery Road, Napier, on Friday night, one resident thought a "hoon" in car had lost control in heavy rain and crashed.
"That's what it sounded like," the resident said this morning as the slip attracted a string of
curious sightseers.
"It was a just a bang ... like two cars colliding." There had been no rumbling or crashing sounds.
"It would have just slid down."
It was the second time in five months a slip had appeared on that section of the northern face of Napier Hill.
In June, large sheets of heavy plastic were laid across the face of a slope after minor slip beneath the carport area of a house in Milton Terrace.
But they failed to prevent the face being further saturated during last Friday night's persistent rain.
For a couple who had been in the process of buying the property, it was a huge blow. It is understood they had been tenants in the two-bedroom home after the former owner, an elderly woman, died.
"I really feel for them. They were trying to get a start in life by getting a house and this happens."
The couple had not been home at the time of the slip and were later advised by the fire service who attended that it was not not safe to stay there.
A huge tree lay across the roof and tonnes of soil and rocks had punched into the rear walls of the house. A drainage pipe was left dangling down the slip face.
Engineers would now determine what remedial action would need to be taken to stabilise the face.
