They barely escaped with their lives, and now an Auckland family will come to terms with “losing everything” as their home of 18 years was condemned.
The family had to swim through six-foot-deep floodwaters to escape the rising water on their property, rescuing their pets in the process.
Auckland Council has now red-stickered their home in the North Shore suburb of Sunnynook due to the severity of flood damage.
When Charmaine Cherrington checked the weather forecast on Friday, she was told to expect rainfall - but didn’t think much of it at the time.
Social media had told her of the impending wet weather, she continued about her day as she did her grocery shopping at her local Pak’nSave in Wairau Valley, rain bucketed down as she reached her car.
Within a couple of hours of her shopping, the Pak’nSave had completely flooded. Cherrington arrived at her house on Totara Vale Drive and took a shower, while her son enjoyed an after-work beer.
The Sunnynook property was home to three adult children - son, daughter and son-in-law. It was also home to their eight-year-old grandchild.
The house borders a creek, which Cherrington said her family was monitoring while the rain continued to pour.
“It was filling and rising up, you could see it climbing,” Cherrington told the Herald.
“When it started to pour on to our property, that’s when we knew it was pretty bad - the backyard was a lilypond within the hour.”
Immediately, Cherrington made a call to Kainga Ora - which manages their property - asking for alternative accommodation as they felt unsafe.
“They said they couldn’t due to everything being booked for the Elton John concert [scheduled to go ahead that night], suggesting maybe the rain would stop soon, but it didn’t.”
The phone call took roughly an hour, by the time Cherrington hung up it the waters had begun to rise through the floorboards and up the property’s steps.
Cherrington and her partner David made the call to evacuate their home, as waters continued to rise around their house.
Fortunately, David had the foresight to move the cars to higher ground further up the road, which protected them from the floodwaters.
When the family opened their front door, they discovered the water had reached six feet. They would need to swim to reach the cars.
“By the time we swam it was up to our necks, but there was a strong current pulling us back towards the stream,” said Cherrington.
The family made it to their vehicles, where they evacuated to nearby Forest Hill and stayed with a family member. The following morning, they returned to the house to check the damage.
“Everything had floated and been dumped back down, the whole house was a bomb site and upended,” said Cherrington.
When they sifted through the damage, they knew the chances were high of the house being unsalvageable.
Those fears were confirmed on Sunday when the family was visited by an Auckland Council staff member, accompanied by a building inspector who was surveying flood-damaged homes.
“We were pulling everything out of the house when they arrived, [the staff member] looked through the home and told us ‘you can’t be here’ and that we needed to leave,” said Cherrington.
The house was red-flagged, warning tape was wrapped around the property’s entrance and the family was told to leave immediately.
“She said it wasn’t our problem and we needed to think about ourselves and our family’s health. We lost everything.”
Now living in a motel in Takapuna, the family are left with a spare change of clothes, their pets and their lives - something that partner David said he’s still coming to terms with.
“Last night was the best sleep I’d had in two days - I haven’t slept before that,” he said.
“You’re just a zombie walking dead, my emotions aren’t as bad as they were before at least.”
The family, uninsured, have lost all belongings including furniture and sentimental items. A few photos were rescued from the property, and Cherrington hopes she can have them restored.
“We could have lost our lives, our neighbours nearly did so I’m thankful we got out,” she said.
“Everything is replaceable. My family have dealt with it in their own ways but that’s how I deal with it. We can’t blame anybody for what happened - it all happened so quickly. It’s been hard on everyone.”
Hoping to get rehoused, Cherrington said the next step will be to begin replacing what’s lost.
“We’ll take it one day at a time.”