Soggy gems spring from rescue effort

A member of the Urban Search and Rescue taskforce retrieve personal belongings from the Tauranga house. Pictures / Alan Gibson

"Anything will be a bonus," said David and Corinna Greaves as a specialist urban search and rescue team moved yesterday to recover what they could from the remnants of the Tauranga couple's collapsed three-level home.

Driven from the house a week ago as the first of three landslides toppled it from its piles and shunted it 20m down the section into flats below, what the pair really wanted was a few family photographs and some of their children's toys.

"Photos are irreplaceable, but anything they can save would be fantastic," said Mr Greaves. "My daughter's bedroom was obliterated and we've had to tell the kids they will be lucky to get anything out."

The children, Hayley aged 10 and Reilly 7, went to school in the teeming rain last Wednesday and that was the last they saw of their home, considered the worst damaged in Tauranga during last week's phenomenal rainfall.

"I'm not too hung up on things but it's funny how silly items you wouldn't normally even think about just become very precious," Mr Greaves said.

Urban Search and Rescue task force three leader Roy Breeze assured the couple his team would "go for broke" and retrieve what they could from the Landscape Rd house, built by Mr Greaves five years ago.

The recovery operation was complex.

More than half the house submerged in mud and the remainder looking as it it had been picked up by a twister and dumped. The experts tunnelled in to the residue of three rooms at the front, which had been compressed into the garage area.

A geotechnical engineer continually monitored earth movement, ready to sound a warning.

"The soil has been described to us as 'porridge pie.' It probably will not go quickly on us now it has dried up a bit," said Mr Breeze.

Numerous acroprops were used to jack up fallen ceilings and walls so the men could crawl in to available spaces.

It was not long before the search squad members started to carry out "treasures". Mud- covered and damp as they were, four snaps of the family and the children as babies were a godsend to the nervous owners.

Another triumphant early find was Mrs Greaves' papers and text books for the diploma she is studying in interior design.

The mood lifted visibly and each memento - even a solitary dirty cushion - was greeted eagerly. More photographs emerged, some the worst for wear, but precious nonetheless.

Said fireman Jim Hoskins, the father of Mrs Greaves: "Life is a box of chocolates. You don't know what you'll get next."

Over the next few hours it was a steady procession of goods from a family's ordinary life, alternated by armfuls of debris.

"It's like Christmas," laughed Mrs Greaves, who was delighted to get her perfume back and quickly sprayed some on.

A white serving platter survived in one piece, as did a pot of chicken soup and several bottles of wine, minus the treasured crystal glasses. A laptop computer which still worked by battery was retrieved, along with a stereo, other partly-damaged pieces of furniture, sodden books, an operational fire alarm, a pair of laddered tights, a wall clock stopped at mid-day (when the house was wrecked), and a motor cycle helmet. There was no sign of the 1100cc Suzuki Bandit lost in the mire.

Some clothing and bedding was dank but salvageable; other items were dumped. One lonely red boot was eventually joined by its mate. And then eureka - some of Reilly's toys. Sadly, nothing of Hayley's could be rescued.

A major victory was the successful hoisting out by crane of Mr Greaves's largely undamaged $20,000 Cresta Craft. He had only had the 4.9m boat for three months.

"I think it's time I named her now. I might have to call her 'Miracle'," he said last evening.

The couple did not get all their photographs.

"But we got far more than expected and we are over the moon."

Mr Greaves also recovered a few keepsakes left him by his father who died a few months ago.

Of the search and rescue unit, he said: "Those guys were amazing. I take my hat off to them."

Thirty-three if its members, divided into four operational squads, have been mobilised from Auckland and Palmerston North to help Tauranga residents recover property before condemned homes are bulldozed.

The push to recovery

* The Bay Of Plenty Mayoral Relief Fund has so far raised $513,000 from the public, central and local government.

* 17 of 78 evacuees have returned home.

* Another 14 are expected to return home today.

* 133 sanitary assessments have been completed out of 504 water-damaged properties.

* The Urban Search and Rescue Team have removed personal possessions from five of the 16 properties earmarked for demolition.