Far North floods: Whiteheads face PTSD, denied government buyout

By Peter de Graaf at RNZ

Every time it rains, fear gnaws in Gary Whitehead’s gut.

He and his wife Kimberlee Whitehead live in the Far North’s Pupuke Valley, north of Kāeo, where they are confronted by increasingly severe, and regular, floods.

He said the floods were taking a toll on their mental health and literally kept him awake at night.

“I don’t sleep when it rains. Just because, what if I fall asleep and water comes through the house? I can’t get out. It’s just scary,” he said.

Kimberlee said the floods often came after dark.

“We’ll be out there at all hours of the night, checking on the water levels … We have to decide at what stage we move the vehicles out to the roadside where they’ll be safe. I’ve gone to bed fully clothed, so if I have to get up in a hurry, I can just get up and go.”

The Whiteheads bought the house in 2013.

The Far North District Council gave consent for the subdivision in 1995 and when a house was moved onto the land a year later, they figured it must be safe.

Kimberlee Whitehead shows the level of the February 2018 flood. Photo / Peter de Graaf

They were also assured the record-breaking Kāeo floods of 2007 reached the floorboards but did not enter the house.

That turned out to be untrue, with the water in fact rising to the window sills – a depth of almost a metre inside the house.

Kimberlee said their first year in Pupuke Valley was “pretty dry”.

“But in our second year here we started getting flooding multiple times every winter.

“They didn’t come that close to the house at that stage, so we were kind of like, okay, that’s just what we can expect … and then they started getting higher and closer to the house.”

The first serious flood, in 2014, submerged storage containers in their backyard and wrecked about $100,000 worth of engineering equipment.

In subsequent floods, rainwater coming off the road would wash out their driveway so they couldn’t move their cars to higher ground.

Kimberlee said they had lost five vehicles and “countless” pigs and chickens to floods, which often rose to shoulder height outside the house.

They no longer kept animals because it was just too traumatic, she said.

In the worst flood so far, in February 2018, water came up through the floorboards and Gary had to swim through floodwaters to rescue their pigs.

When they couldn’t get a response from Civil Defence, they phoned Kāeo Fire Brigade for help.

“The fire department were pretty good, they helped us raise everything in the house, lifted all the furniture and things. But then they had to leave, so we were just left to sit on the side of the road until the water level went down,” Gary said.

The ongoing floods, and years of battling the council, had left the couple feeling overwhelmed and anxious.

Both had sought help from mental health services and been diagnosed with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

“It’s the emotional toll,” Kimberlee said.

“Every time it rains it’s really hard to not panic, to not stress,” she said.

After so many floods insurance would no longer pay out, and the property would be all but impossible to sell.

However, a government buyout scheme unveiled last year offered hope of a way out.

“We thought we’d finally get some help,” Gary said.

Flooding in Pupuke Valley, north of Kāeo, in 2018. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Under the Future of Severely Affected Land scheme (FOSAL), central government and any councils that signed up would split the costs of buying out properties damaged in 2023’s Anniversary Weekend floods and Cyclone Gabrielle.

To qualify for a buyout, properties also had to pose “an ongoing and intolerable risk to life” with no way of mitigating that danger.

The Whiteheads said they did not want to leave the valley, but if they were offered a buyout, they would have to accept it.

The Far North District Council originally expected up to 21 properties could be eligible at a potential cost of just under $6 million.

However, planning and policy group manager Roger Ackers said in the end none met the criteria for a buyout.

He said potentially affected residents and landowners around the district were interviewed, but only one property – the Whiteheads’ – was found to require an engineering assessment.

A flooded property risk assessment report, by engineering firm Tonkin Taylor, found their property was not significantly affected by the 2023 North Island Weather Events, and so was not eligible for a buyout under the FOSAL programme, he said.

That finding was disputed by the Whiteheads, who said water did not enter the house during Cyclone Gabrielle – but several piles sank during the three days their property was under water.

They also pointed to the engineers’ finding the house posed “an intolerable risk” to life.

The couple had since been advised by a mental health counsellor to “just walk away” from the property.

However, with Gary aged 58 and unable to work due to an injury, and Kimberlee working part-time in her own business, giving up everything they had worked for and starting again was not an option.

Besides, Kimberlee said they loved the valley and had made many friends in the area.

Kimberlee and Gary Whitehead at their home in the Far North’s Pupuke Valley as last week’s flood subsides. Photo / Peter de Graaf

“It would be hard to walk away from that. We just want to be safe. Our home to be safe. We want to know we can go away for a weekend and we’re not going to have a flash flood and the house is going to be damaged.”

The Whiteheads’ property flooded once again in last Friday’s rain but water did not enter their home.

The FOSAL scheme was open to councils in areas affected by the “North Island weather events” of 2023.

Those that opted in included Auckland Council, Far North, Central Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne and Masterton district councils.

Elsewhere in Northland, Whangārei and Kaipara district councils opted out, saying they did not believe any properties in their districts would be eligible.