Torrential downpours flooded homes in low lying areas of Hamilton suburb, sparking evacuations

Monday, 3 December 2018

Flooding hits Whatawhata Rd in Dinsdale on Sunday afternoon.

Doug and Julz Chappel tried bucketing the water out of their sump to stop their home flooding.

But the Hamilton couple couldn't keep up as the downpour intensified, sending a deluge through their Glamis Ave home on Sunday.

'We were getting smashed,' Julz Chappel said as her and husband Doug assessed the damage of their Dinsdale home on Monday.

Doug Chappel took Monday off to clean out the bottom storey of his house that flooded on Sunday.

'We tried stopping it, then all of a sudden it was out of control.'

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Homes on a section of Whatawhata Rd were inundated.

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A manhole cover blew on Glamis Ave, turning the road into a lake.

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Rain damage in Dinsdale, Hamilton, on Sunday after a heavy downpour.

Torrential rain caused flash flooding across the Dinsdale suburb on Sunday with a total of 24 people in seven homes needing to be evacuated.

Hamilton City Council incident response controller Andre Chatfield said all evacuated residents are expected to be able to return to their properties on Tuesday, subject to final property assessments.

An estimated 40mm of rain fell in under an hour in what Chatfield said was a 'highly unusual' event.

'Staff on site have said they have never seen this amount of rain in one area in such a short time,' Chatfield said on Monday.

Water was over ankle deep down the Chappels' driveway.

The rainfall was 'massive', with the main downpour lasting 45 minutes.

'Quite simply, the amount of rain in such a short time was highly unusual and substantially more than the system was designed for.'

A gumboot floating in floodwaters in the bottom storey of the Chappels' garage and storage room.

Cars were backed up after flooding in the Hamilton suburb of Dinsdale.

Council staff arranged temporary accommodation for four evacuated families.

'Our priority at the moment is ensuring these families, and three other families who were also evacuated, are looked after while our teams assess the impact of the rain, and subsequent flooding, on their homes.'

Power was turned off to the properties as a precaution during the flooding and electrical assessments were being done as part of the safety checks.

Torrential downpours hit around 2pm - not long after the Chappels arrived home.

The day before they'd been enjoying 36 degree weather on the Gold Coast of Australia.

'We were having a bite to eat and we saw the rain coming in so we pulled the washing off the line,' Doug Chappel said.

'I looked out the window and I could see the water pooling.'

Chappel headed downstairs to the garage. The floor was dry so he opened the garage door.

Within minutes a deluge engulfed the the bottom storey, seeping into the laundry and filling the storage room.

'Initially it was ankle deep but eventually it was everywhere - all sorts of things were floating through the garage.

'It's gone up about two or three stairs, into the carpet and storage area.'

Heavy rain had blown the manhole on Glamis Ave inundating the street. It appeared the stormwater system was unable to cope.

A tiered garden bed outside the Chappel's garage turned to a waterfall.

'Our street was just a lake, and Whatawhata Rd was worse.'

An auxilliary sump outside the couple's garage failed when there was nowhere for the water to go.

'We had the buckets, were filling the buckets straight off the sump walking up to the driveway and pouring it onto the road.

'But the reality was the water had nowhere to go.'

Chappel dragged his red Holden out of the garage.

'I rung 111 and asked for them to get there straight away as it was getting worse and we couldn't control it.'

Firefighters were on scene for several hours removing water from the damaged properties in Glamis Ave, Newcastle Rd and Whatawhata Rd.

'They really saved us, things could of been a lot worse for us without them,' the Chappels said of Pukete Fire Brigade's efforts.

Early Monday morning the road was dry but the remnants of Sunday's flood were evident across the low lying houses.

A cluster of seven homes in the worst hit area of Whatawhata Rd remained empty as Civil Defence went door to door photographing any damage.

Water marks up to a metre high covered another woman's home. In the 10 years she's lived on Whatawhata Rd she's never seen flooding like it.

'This year is the absolute worst.'

The Chappels had taken Monday off to clean up the damage and were waiting on their insurance company to send an assessor.

'If that was to happen again - it's going to happen again and we won't be able to cope with it,' Julz said.