Where to for Whangaehu?

SHIFTING Whangaehu village is one possible way of preventing future flooding.
Some residents say they're staying no matter what, others are unsure and others say they'll shift if they get enough financial help.
On July 7 three houses and one business in the village 15km south of Wanganui were flooded by the rampaging Whangaehu River.
It reached 11.1m at Kauangaroa on that day, compared with 13.3m in the much larger flood of February 2004.
Horizons Regional Council operations manager Allan Cook said despite being smaller than 2004 the July 7 flood was a big one.
There was only a three percent risk of a flood of that size in any year, provided the climate stayed the same.
Horizons would do a speedy, one-month, broad brush investigation of what had happened, and then meet with concerned Whangaehu residents.
"At this stage I have some reservations about our ability to fully protect that village," Mr Cook said.
He understood that some of residents wanted a stopbank built up, but said Horizons had no formal stopbank protecting the town and stopbanks were not always the best answer.
"As soon as you start to have impacts on the flood plain you start to send waters somewhere else. It may not be as simple as people there see it."
A long term option could be to move people out. "It's not always possible to find engineering solutions to flooding problems. One (solution) could be to take the people out of the risk area. It's possible that too often we overlook that option."
Rangitikei District Council acting chief executive Dorstan Hayman said his council was waiting for Horizons' debrief on the flood.
"Council has to decide whether they want to assist that community in staying where it is or whether they should be looking at encouraging that community to relocate elsewhere," he said.
One option was to create a flood hazard zone, which would make property buyers aware of the risk.
"I don't think anyone in their right mind would build there now."
Larry Collard had 300mm of water through the lower storey of his house and his business, Whangaehu Garage, on July 7. "Last time it was six feet," he said.
He had plenty of warning and moved everything possible out of the way. Insurance would be paying for new carpets and some wall linings, and he had shovelled and graded the muck out of the garage and its yard.
"We saved most everything."
He wanted to stay in the village, living in the top storey of his house, until he retired in 10 years' time. The garage, where he did engineering work and maintained farm machinery, was his livelihood and farmers depended on it.
Mike McDonnell owns two houses in the village. Neither were flooded, though water came within 150mm of one of them. The McDonnells had a family meeting on Sunday, and discussed the option of shifting. It depended on what was offering, Mr McDonnell said.
"Talk's cheap. It takes money to buy whisky." He intended to put propositions to the various councils if what was offered didn't suit him.
Stig Erlandsen's house didn't get flooded this time, but the possibility scared him. It had 1.5m of water in it in February 2004.
On the morning of July 7 he drove to the Wanganui side of SH3 and prayed as he watched the water recede and then rise again.
"Last time I left it was by boat," he said.
He wasn't sure how his family would respond to the latest flood.
The Chronicle also talked to two residents who didn't want to be named.
One said she was staying. The other said her shed and washhouse were flooded and she would be looking at options. "If someone was to buy us all out, we would probably go. We have a mortgage, so they would have to pay us out the right price."