Source: Radio New Zealand
Brooklyn residents clearing gutters of debris from a slip further up the road. RNZ / Charlotte Cook
A woman was so worried about rising floodwaters she decided to sleep in her shop after flash floods ravaged Wellington.
The capital and surrounding areas are under a rare red rain warning after days of wet conditions.
Those who weren’t hit in the first deluge did what they could to ensure it doesn’t happen again with more rain battering the region.
Around the capital, bleary-eyed people stand in their shop doorways, covered in grime, donning gumboots and wet weather gear.
Too stunned to speak, they say no comment. Their homes, shops and livelihoods ruined. Sweeping, shovelling, pumping whatever they can.
Asha Patel – owner of Skin and Body Care in Newtown. RNZ / Charlotte Cook
Asha Patel from Skin and Body Care in Newtown narrowly avoided catastrophe.
Next door in Lychgate mall, a metre high wall of water pushed through the building, blowing out windows and destroying the property as vehicles floated in the car park.
“I’m lucky I’ve got concrete floors in Lino, so that was easy to clean up.
“But I do feel sorry for a lot of people in Newtown, especially the cafes across the road.”
However she was not out of the woods with more warnings and rain to come.
“I’m worried. I’m thinking of staying overnight.
“Just because I’ve got very expensive machines, you know, machines can cost anything up to $150, $200,000.”
She said this would make her anxious every time it rained now.
“It will make me worry … stay up at night. I might want to come back to Newtown in the middle of the night to check on my clinic.
“It’s hard work, you know, it’s your sweat and your heart. You work so hard to make something, you know. And it gets washed away so quickly.”
Owhiro Bay resident Nicole and her children getting ready to sandbag. RNZ / Charlotte Cook
Nicole in Owhiro Bay sandbagged and then left her place after seeing the torrent from the night before.
“If I had to make a call to leave to go to my neighbours across the road up the driveway, I’d have to evacuate quite quickly before water maybe got into my house because Happy Valley Road was so flooded that crossing the road would have been really unsafe.”
She said seeing the weather get worse and worse was terrifying.
“My oldest has just started intermediate school and he’s now missed two days of school, one for wind and one for flooding just in 2026, so pretty bad.”
A few houses away from Nicole a family evacuated in the middle of the night in waist deep water – the house is now filled with mud.
Too overwhelmed to speak, the owner told RNZ they are just getting ready for it to flood again.
A message other residents fear but are working to avoid.
Glen Christie spent Monday working on the gutters – doing his best to ensure the worst doesn’t happen again.
“It’s scary seeing the neighbours getting flooded and walking around and seeing a few other people flooded and a few cars smashed up by the little slips and things like that.”
Many residents will be anxious to open their curtains at first light this morning, to see what new damage awaits them.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
