A Bay of Islands holiday resort has been devastated by torrential flooding that roared down the Waitangi River as heavy rain blasted Northland yesterday.
Jan Gerritsen-Molloy, who co-owns the Haruru Falls Resort Panorama and Motor Camp with husband Hendrickus, is waiting for the flood waters to subside today so she can
fully assess the damage.
But late yesterday evening, an upset Mrs Gerritsen-Molloy was mourning the devastation caused by the flooding, which brought the Waitangi River through the property and brought down a slip that wiped out four two-bedroom units on the site. However, she is also relieved that nobody was hurt in the crisis.
"It's just devastated us. The river is normally 150 metres from our restaurant, now it's lapping at the doors," she said.
"It's totally destroyed the four units. And this is our home too, but we can't get into the house because it's right next to the slip."
The couple were likely to spend the night in the resort's restaurant, which was on higher ground than the rest of the property.
She said her husband had lived in the area for 21 years, and she for nine, and they had never seen anything like the flooding experienced yesterday.
"We had a small slip about noon and decided to evacuate everybody from the site. Then about 2pm the larger slip just came and hit the units," Mrs Gerritsen-Molloy said.
"We've got a 22-metre pool, that's normally two metres above ground. Now it's just part of the river. The whole property is now part of the river."
By 7pm last night a predicted fall in the water levels had not happened, but the couple were determined to stay put.
"We've got huge community support here, but until the water goes down we won't know what to do next. The resort has been destroyed by this, but nobody has been hurt and no lives have been lost so that's one positive thing."
