{"id":390940,"date":"2026-04-21T20:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T20:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/390940\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T20:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T20:04:14","slug":"owhiro-bay-man-believes-family-lucky-not-to-die-in-terrifying-flood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/390940\/","title":{"rendered":"\u014cwhiro Bay man believes family ‘lucky not to die’ in terrifying flood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Less than 48 hours after a terrifying escape in the dead of night reality is starting to bite for a flood-hit family in \u014cwhiro Bay.<\/p>\n

The Wellington south coast suburb was among the worst hit in a thunderstorm overnight on Monday, that saw flash-flooding in low-lying homes while people slept.<\/p>\n

\"Flood<\/p>\n

\nBarnaby Bocock back at his property in the daylight.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii\n<\/p>\n

Wellington, Lower Hutt and Wairarapa remain under a state of emergency<\/a> on Wednesday morning after Monday’s flash flooding.<\/p>\n

Wellington City Council says it is dealing with about 20 homes that are uninhabitable.<\/p>\n

Surveying the devastation caused by floodwaters that reached more than a metre-high inside his home, Barnaby Bocock just feels lucky the family made it out alive.<\/p>\n

“I could just hear water, rain … So, I stood on the toilet in the ensuite and looked out the window and at that moment, water just started flowing.”<\/p>\n

\"Flood<\/p>\n

\nItems lying in the water at the home.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii\n<\/p>\n

Waters ‘crazy loud, crazy fast’<\/p>\n

The “crazy loud, crazy fast” water rose with dizzying speed leaving the family barely enough time to toss belongings onto beds and couches.<\/p>\n

With pet rabbits held aloft, Bocock, his partner, and three teenage children forced their way through floating furniture and chest-deep water to the relative safety of Happy Valley Road.<\/p>\n

\"Flood<\/p>\n

\nThe family spent a few minutes trying to lift smaller items up high.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii\n<\/p>\n

It was just after 4am – only 10 minutes beforehand, they’d been asleep.<\/p>\n

“It felt very isolated at the time,” Bocock said.<\/p>\n

“And then, you see the whole area, and it’s like, ‘Oh no, we were lucky not to die’ … I find it odd to say that afterwards, but it’s like, ‘No, we were lucky not to die.'”<\/p>\n

By Tuesday afternoon, the shock of getting out with little more than the clothes on his back was wearing off and the enormity of the clean-up loomed large.<\/p>\n

\"Flood<\/p>\n

\nA huge clean-up lies ahead.
\nPhoto: CHARLOTTE COOK \/ RNZ\n<\/p>\n

Mud – 30cm deep – covers the paving around the house and inside Bocock showed RNZ the mess which was overwhelming.<\/p>\n

Laptops, bed linen, kitchen and bathroom paraphenalia were scattered everywhere and furniture, lifted and shifted by the water, was in incongruous places.<\/p>\n

Bocock said an artbook collection which was the culmination of decades of work wasn’t spared and neither were photographs.<\/p>\n

“We chucked stuff on the bed. These are my photo albums from high school and university. They’re just destroyed.”<\/p>\n

\"Flood<\/p>\n

\nMud and debris surrounds Barnaby Bocock’s family home in the Wellington south coast suburb \u014cwhiro Bay hit by flash flooding after torrential rain on Monday.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii\n<\/p>\n

The high-water mark – a line of debris about a metre off the ground – delineated what could be kept and what was likely a write-off.<\/p>\n

And it was starting to smell.<\/p>\n

“I just don’t know where to start.”<\/p>\n

Bocock’s sister Lucy Pope was helping him figure out where to begin.<\/p>\n

But she said they still had more questions than answers, such as where to dump ruined furniture and mud.<\/p>\n

“It’s a disaster zone to be honest. My brother did paving out here … what do we do with all this silt? What a shitshow.”<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Less than 48 hours after a terrifying escape in the dead of night reality is starting to bite…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-390940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}