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Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Warning helped to save possessions

By Anne-Marie McDonald
Whanganui Chronicle·
12 Jun, 2016 10:00 PM3 mins to read

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The Wanganui Chronicle is marking the one-year anniversary of the June 2015 floods with a series of articles all week, going back to those who suffered in the flood and finding out how their lives have changed one year on.

Jim and Joy Stantiall have lived in their Marton home for nearly quarter of a century.

It's their home, their pride and joy. And they have no intention of leaving it, despite being the victims of flooding twice in the past 12 years.

The last time the Wanganui Chronicle caught up with the Stantialls was in June 2015, a few days after they had been forced out of their home by the flooded Tutaenui Stream, which borders their property.

They were busy trying to dry their house out and were waiting for insurance assessors to pay them a visit.

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"As soon as the carpet's out we can light the fire to help with the drying out," Mrs Stantiall said.

One year later there's little sign of the flood that swept through their property and into the house. The lawn is pristine, the house cosy and the stream - where their samoyed-labrador dog, Gem, enjoys playing - is a small trickle between high banks.

There are just a few mud-coated garden ornaments in a corner of the verandah, waiting to be thrown out. And an orange mesh fence indicates where part of the garden subsided into the stream.

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The Stantialls clearly recall the events of Saturday, June 20, 2015, when the stream rose from 0.4m to 3.8m.

"We had a pretty decent rainfall on the Friday and when we got up on the Saturday morning the stream was up here lapping at the garden," Mr Stantiall said.

"I said to Joy, 'I think we're in for a good one'."

The couple spent most of Saturday preparing to evacuate and trying to save as much of the house as they could. They looped up their full-length curtains over the curtain rails, moved household items, and even lifted up Mrs Stantiall's piano.

"It was teetering on some bricks," she said. It came through the floods unscathed.

They moved as many of their possessions as they could on to the house's second storey. By 3pm the water had reached the house and the Stantialls left to stay in a friend's granny flat, where they lived for the next five weeks.

Mr Stantiall said the damage to the house had been less than during the 2004 flood, mainly because they were able to prepare themselves.

"In 2004, the water came into the house around midnight and we had to leave quickly. This time we had some warning."

Mrs Stantiall said she was determined to get back into the house as quickly as possible. They were helped in this by their insurance company, which she described as "very helpful".

"They didn't make things difficult for us; it was all straightforward."

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For several weeks they were camping in their house, with the bare concrete floors exposed and the fire going constantly to dry out the house.

Despite the ongoing flood risk, the Stantialls have no intention of leaving their suburban paradise.

"It is our home and we love it here," Mrs Stantiall said.

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