Homeowners in Wellington say they feel abandoned, six months on from severe floods that destroyed their homes.
A record 77mm of rain fell in just one hour in parts of the capital in April, triggering flash floods and landslips, displacing hundreds of people and claiming one life.
Now, a group of residents has joined forces, calling for central government to provide further financial support.
For Vogeltown resident Darren Young, the damage to his property is still causing financial headaches six months on.
A large retaining wall was destroyed in minutes by a powerful torrent of water, with flooding reaching about 1.2 metres inside his home.
“We’re going to go through the claims resolution service and try and get some luck there, to get some funds to rebuild the wall, because if we don’t rebuild this, we’re at risk in any rainfall,” Young said.
Triple the monthly average of rain fell in parts of Wellington over 48 hours in April.
Homeowners hit by April’s devastating floods say financial stress is mounting as support runs out. (Source: 1News)
Forty properties became uninhabitable, including Ōwhiro Bay resident Catherine Beech’s home, where floodwaters rose almost to eye level.
“This was the tide mark, as it were, on the other side of the house. Almost up to eye level,” Beech said.
She was among homeowners calling for government support similar to that offered to Aucklanders after the 2023 floods.
“They were offered a package of co-funded support from central government and local government to assess the properties, to assess the risk to life of people’s properties,” Beech said.
“If they were considered to be at high risk, then they were offered a buyout or they were offered some financial support to mitigate the risk to the property.”
But Wellington Mayor Andrew Little says that kind of support is unlikely.
“We got a pretty clear signal early on the government wasn’t going to be part of any sort of buyout scheme,” he said.
“The way that we saw, for example, with Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023, I think there’s some recent statements where the government has said in future the risk of big weather events causing damage is something that the government just can’t underwrite.”
Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell reiterated that position, saying the government had provided $46,000 to help with accommodation costs and another $100,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund.
He said he would consider extra funding in future if another disaster strikes.
Insurance Council chief executive Kris Faafoi said the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events made it important to plan ahead.
“If these events continue to happen in terms of their frequency and their severity, then it may become more costly,” he said.
“That’s why the insurance sector for some time now has been talking to government and to council, saying we have the opportunity to get ahead of this.”
For Young, the pressure is mounting as his home remains unliveable and his accommodation support is about to run out.
“The pressure is really on because our accommodation benefit starts to run out very soon, and if we don’t get back into our property, we’ll be essentially homeless,” he said.
It’s a situation he’s desperately trying to avoid.