Survivors celebrate with new flood party

PARTY TIME: Ten years ago, the locals gathered in the Polson's paddock at Ngaturi to help forget the devastating flood in 2004.

Life, as they knew it, altered drastically at 6am on February 16, 2004, when floodwaters peaked in the Whangaehu Valley where the Mangawhero and Whangaehu rivers meet.

It was the worst-affected area of the valley in those infamous floods, although Waitotara and Turakina valley folk were also seriously affected as were those further down the line in Manawatu.

The Louries at Okirae and the Polsons in Mangamahu, and others, lost their homes. People were plucked from rooftops by helicopters, or rescued in boats. Millions of dollars worth of damage was done.

Donald Polson lost upwards of 3500 lambs and then clung to a log jam in the Mangawhero River alongside his then head stockman for about eight hours after his jetboat overturned. His brother, Alistair, and topdressing helicopter pilot Charlie Anderson came to the rescue, plucking the pair from the raging waters.

Ten years later, most of those people have rebuilt their lives and are still there. They want to celebrate their survival with their neighbours, the people who helped them and former residents who have since left the valley.

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They're having a party in a paddock tomorrow, at Donald and Liz Polson's 735 Mangamahu Rd property, right where the flooding was worst.

It was Hugh Lourie's idea and the Fordell School fundraising committee took it on. Members raised sponsorship from organisations and businesses involved in the recovery, and the committee will be doing the work on the night.

The party will start at 5.30pm and will go on until late, organiser Mike Cranstone says. "It has a purpose, to highlight how the valley has recovered and some of the productive work that has been done to manage the risk of future flood events."

There could be some serious moments early on, with a presentation on work to clear willows and blockages from the Whangaehu River. Whanganui MP Chester Borrows will also speak and Wanganui Mayor Annette Main has been invited.

PGG Wrightson is supplying a marquee and free buses to and from Wanganui and Mangamahu will depart from the Transit depot in Ridgway St at 5.15pm. The buses will make two returns trips stopping for pick-ups and deliveries at the Matarawa Church on the corner of No2 Line and Union Line and at the Fordell Hotel.

"The buses will make two return trips from the party - one late and one later."

Rural Women New Zealand has dipped into the Adverse Events Fund to sponsor a DJ for the knees-up later and food for a free meal has mostly been supplied by two local meat companies, Affco and Silver Fern Farms. Temporary portable toilets are available and there will be a cash bar.

Mr Cranstone said the party was more about celebrating the positives from the floods than dwelling on the past, although there would no doubt be a few embellished stories told about the 2004 event at tomorrow's party.

"There have been positives, surprisingly. Many of the paddocks that were half a metre or a metre deep in silt after the waters receded have well and truly recovered and are now among the most fertile in the district. Houses lost in the flood have been rebuilt and there's plenty to celebrate about the resilience and spirit of the people and communities that came through it."