Source: Radio New Zealand
A Lower Hutt man whose family was forced to flee their home when a large slip fell away from beneath the building says they will be “left with nothing”.
Aaron Pahl said time appeared to go into slow motion when a 10 by 30 square metre expanse of his back yard slid away on Monday – leaving the deck and the rear foundation hanging exposed.
“I was outside and I heard it start cracking, like all the trees just start cracking and crunching. So I pretty much screamed out to my kids ‘get your arses up here now!’ and I watched the whole thing just slide down the bank,” Pahl said.
Pahl said nearly 16 years of saving and hard work had gone down the drain as he, his partner and three children salvaged what they could from the building and sought advice as to what options they had following the slip.
“I don’t see a light. I don’t know, I honestly don’t know. I wouldn’t wish this on anybody man. It’s just like another test, I guess, but it’s not one that I was in any shape or form prepared for,” Pahl said.
The view from Stokes Valley painter Aaron Pahl’s house after a slip left the house uninhabitable on Monday morning. Supplied
The family’s home was issued with a dangerous building notice following the slip.
Pahl said he’d been told re-stabilising his property with retaining walls could take years but demolishing the home would exhaust practically all of his insurance for property.
“The reimbursement from my insurance company would be enough to cover the remainder of my mortgage and then the demolishing fee.
“I was talking to one of the engineers and he’s like ‘if they were to demolish it you’re looking at a couple of hundred thousand dollars. There wouldn’t be much left from that’.
Stokes Valley painter Aaron Pahl says he shouted to his children to get to safety when a large slip fell away from the base of his home – leaving the house uninhabitable -on Monday morning. SUPPLIED
“I’ve worked for the last 16 years to provide this for my family. To get to where I am today and I’m literally going to walk away with nothing. It’s just painful,” Pahl said.
Pahl said his insurance company had agreed to provide just under $12,000 in an accommodation supplement but the money was only likely to house his family for the next three or four months.
Until they could find a place the family of five – with two pets – were staying at Pahl’s father in law’s three bedroom home in Featherston.
Pahl said he was hugely grateful but the small space and extra distance to work and his children’s schools were adding to the family’s burdens.
“It’s added three hours plus a day just to get the kids to school and get myself to work and get my wife to work and it’s breaking man. The two younger one’s are sharing a double bed. They had their own rooms and stuff at home and they’ve just been crammed into a room and ‘that’s where you sleep’,” Pahl said.
He said he’d barely slept since the slip and – while he had some friends he could talk to – the events of the last week were weighing heavily on his shoulders.
“I work for myself and I’ve not been able to work since this happened because I’ve had so much to deal with and [I’m] just watching everything just crumble.
“I’ve got some really good friends and they’re always there to lend and ear. But I still feel like this is my problem and I’ve got to deal with it. I’ve always been that type that is like ‘you carry the shit that’s on your shoulders mate’. I’m tradesman that’s what we do,” he said
Pahl said the family had started a give-a-little page under the heading Help Support Our Family After Stokes Valley Landslide.
“I didn’t want to at first. I didn’t want to ask but, it’s like, if we don’t we’re absolutely screwed. They always say it’s going to get worse before it gets any better but I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel,” Pahl said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
