North Island floods: Grandmother 'shoved to the ground by police'

Dot Bowlin (left) and Roma Brewer have both complained to their MP about their treatment by the police. Photo / Mark Mitchell

A south Taranaki grandmother says she was shoved to the ground and handcuffed by police after she objected to being forced from her house in the face of rapidly rising flood waters.

Police came to Dot Bowlin's Waitotara property late on Saturday afternoon as they told everyone in her street to leave.

But Mrs Bowlin, 67, told them she wasn't ready to go as the water wasn't yet a threat to her house - situated on a rise - and she had to organise her animals.

She said she was pleading her case to stay when a younger policeman allegedly threw her to the ground and put her in handcuffs, aggravating an arm injury.

Police yesterday confirmed Mrs Bowlin was handcuffed, but said they could not comment on how she was treated.

Neighbour Roma Brewer, 69, also said he was the victim of heavy-handed policing. He said as he was telling police he wasn't ready to leave, he was elbowed in the side of the head and knocked to the ground by - the pair suspect - the same policeman.

Both alleged incidents are said to have happened on the street, in full view of witnesses.

"It's unbelievable really when I think about it," Mrs Bowlin said. "It's as though they felt we were going to rob a bank or something.

"We didn't even get to take any of our stuff because we were taken away."

The pair were driven by bus to Waverley. Mud still clogs every pore outside on rural Ihupuku St, but the pair's houses were not damaged.

Both had lived in the area for about 40 years and said they knew they still had time to get out on Saturday, but the police wouldn't listen.

Mr Brewer and Mrs Bowlin had both spoken to local MP Chester Borrows about the incident and Mr Brewer was also seeking legal advice.

Noise as loud as 'a raging sea'

Hardly anything inside Pauline Tahau's mud-filled house is salvageable.

The Whangaehu woman's soaking and brown possessions were piling up on her water-logged front lawn yesterday, as helpers shovelled out thick sludge.

Ms Tahau, who has lived in the one-storey house with her two grandsons since last year, was evacuated in waste-deep waters late on Saturday from the worst floods to hit the settlement, southeast of Whanganui, since 2004.

Whangaehu resident Pauline Tahau rescued this portrait of her grandmother from her flooded home. Photo / Mark Mitchell

She admits she probably left it too late to go as water from the nearby river roared around her and one of her grandsons helped her through.

The noise was incredible, as loud as a raging sea. "It was a frightening experience - my own fault. I should have moved when I was first told," she said.

"Inside there's a big mess. There's nothing that I can really salvage."

Ms Tahau has spent the past two nights at the Whangaehu hall with two other families who have been looked after by people from Ratana Pa.

As she watched the clean-up efforts, she expressed relief everyone was okay. "The main thing is no lives were lost. These things are just material."

Next door, Mike McDonnell was luckier. The waters didn't lap as high in his house of 50 years, but there was still plenty of damage.

Because of a medical condition, Mr McDonnell left for safety quite early on Saturday as the heavens opened up. He has been flooded before - four times - but now has insurance. "After 2004 the bank made me."

In Whanganui itself, some city streets and the main bridge over the Whanganui River were still closed yesterday. Road workers were clearing slips and police out in force manning roadblocks.

In the eastern part of the city, next to the river, hundreds of people were unable to return to their homes.

One of those was Kerri Osborne, who lives on the corner of Ikitara Rd and Anzac Parade, a thoroughfare that looked like a canal as floodwaters had nowhere to drain to.

A thick brown line about 1.5m high around the side of her house showed where the water had lapped around her belongings.

"It's as bad as I thought - perhaps worse. I think worse, but nothing can prepare you," she said.

"I wonder when I'll be allowed in? Days?"