@dogmeat said in Extreme Weather:
@Crucial Now add Omahu Waiohiki Jervoistown and Meeanee
Flood protection on Tutaekuri has failed.
We are due to drive down early Thursday - if roads are open
Gabrielle better not interfere with my (two) Gin Distillery events 
I am in Meeanee and have a sister in Jerviostown. We both escaped serious flooding but there were houses within 100 metres that had to be evacuated so could count ourselves lucky in that respect.
Where I stay in Meeanee is probably only about a kilometre away as the crow flies from the Brookfields Bridge which sadly is no more. Some of the houses belonging to/associated with other long established Meeanee familes (close to 100 years or more in some cases) were not so lucky, especially those close to the Tutaekuri river at Brookfields where a number of those homes were flooded to roof level if the reports are true. One of those probably only 700metres less than from here. How the water never reached the part of Meeanee where I am is astonishing???? I often take a dog that has taken up residence at my place walking past there and it is scarcely believable how they got caught in the first place and we missed out given the complete flatness of the area. The most fortuitous thing is that that old Tutaekuri River bed flowed past less than 50 metres away from this house until it was rechannelled out to Awatoto. My great-grandfather had this property in those days and my older siblings can recall him telling them of flooding stories when they were very young (way before my time!)
We have had no power, local phones, internet and mobile service until the mobile service came on again late last night. Ironic how I can receive calls from outside of the HB on the old copper wire landline but cannot make outbound calls of any kind (local or toll), so much for old technology!
Being in a "rural" area I suspect that we could be one of the last to get reconnected to the electrical grid so it looks like at least another few days or maybe even weeks) of cooking on an old portable gas camping cooker and washing clothing by hand (and believe me with a mother closer to 100 than she is to 90 there are lots needing attention every day!) Still it is what it is and we are way better off than many others are.
Being in a rural area we do not have the fancy extra fast top of the line rapid internet service and need power to spark the modem/router into action to keep up with our regular haunts. That was not possible until a couple of hours ago when a nephew arrived down from Auckland (via Ashurst thanks to road closures!) with a portable generator so we are up and running to a very limited degree. No generator going = no internet.
Fortunately the internet service seems to be working and as long as the generator is going we should be ok in that regard. On the downside we will be using it only spasmodically once the freezer is fully back to frozen temperature to simply maintain what we have in there due to its noise and petrol fumes it emits.
There was a surprising amount of stuff salvagable that was down low and in solid frozen pieces, roasts and other red meats mainly. On the other hand the softish whitemeats were up in the baskets so out had to go all the chicken and fish/seafood, of which there was quite a lot. All the berries, ice cream, vegetables, bread etc were all defrosted and needed biffing onto the compost heap but at least the bread is still edible! The jury is still out on the frozen fruitjuices made from our oranges and tangeloes. Luckily the frozen peaches from our tree still seem ok which is just as well as the tree did a sulk this year and did not fruit.
Oh one thing having to have a dump in the middle of the night without any lighting does come with a few extra problems!!!!!
I have rediscovered the pleasure and time filling practice of doing 1500 piece jigsaw puzzles (until it gets too dark about 8.00pm) and then reading by candlelight! Not quite so enjoyable however is the warm beers that I have been consuming, they are not as yuck as people claim them to be, despite the rather different flavour to them in their chilled states.
Hopefully this gives a little insight into how things are progressing for the not so badly affected people after what must have been a truly horrific period for those in the Eskdale, Waiohiki and Omahu areas plus a lot of the real remote rural areas up country like Sherenden, Puketitri, Patoka, Tutira etc, not to mention the Wairoa district and the East Coast areas.
