PRESERVING HER WHĀNAU HOME FOR THE GENERATIONS TO COME

North Clyde flooding is nothing new for Bev Priston (Morrell), who can still remember being rescued from flood waters when she was a child.
Living at the same whānau property as she does now, Bev can recall her uncle putting her on his shoulders and using submerged fences as a guide to walk to higher ground on Kaimoana Road.
Bev was born at 1 Te Rato Road 83 years ago. Her dad, Ned Morrell, built their original whānau home with interlocking joints using no nails.
Bev’s Wairoa ties are strong despite her 40 years away living and working in Wellington. She laughs that she started off as a cleaner and ended up an area manager: “The government got a lot out of me.” She and her husband, the late Bernard, moved back to Wairoa about 10 years ago, and now daughter Rose Russell has also joined her mum.
Bev recalls how the previous home on the Te Rato Road site had been badly damaged in Cyclone Bola, and the whānau made the decision to build the replacement home higher off the ground.
The new elevated home was built around the same time as Queen Elizabeth II visited Wairoa to officially open the new Wairoa Bridge. Bev chuckles at the recollection that on the day of the visit, there was some concrete left over from the bridge work, and it was used for the foundations of the new elevated house, which now sits on Royal foundations.
Bev said raising the house was a good move, with Cyclone Gabrielle flood waters just reaching the top step of the house and only flooding the dropped-down living room area.
Bev missed the worst of the flooding as she was staying with Rose in Hastings. By sheer luck, she had parked her car on the south side of town near her church and taken the bus, saving her car from being flooded.
It was weeks until Bev was able to get back to her Wairoa home.
As roads slowly reopened, her son was able to drive from Wellington, collecting Bev and Rose from Palmerston North and coming through Opotiki and Gisborne to get to Wairoa.
Bev said she was very emotional when she first saw the house, and her immediate concern was for her cat Niggs – who is a hunter and survived.
Bev says the community has been amazing, and everyone has helped out, from repairing her fences to emptying the bottom of the house and taking flood-damaged property away.
Bev has spent the past year putting her home back together again. Rose laughs that her mum is a bit of a tradie who wanted a power drill for her last birthday and is happy to get stuck in and repair what she can.
“I’m only doing a little bit at a time,” Bev says, “but I want the house to remain for all the whānau who come back.” Bev has six children and spent three months in Ireland with a daughter, which was just a break to get away from working through the flood damage.
The house is now nearly back together. The lounge area has had the walls replaced and is waiting on paint and carpet. The next step will be under house insulation so that the bottom of the house can be closed off.
Reflecting on the cyclone, Bev said a positive is all the help she received from locals to Civil Defence and Council. “There was a lot of support.”
Bev is also in favour of some type of flood mitigation work, saying the river has breached three times in the same place, and that needs to be fixed.

 

8 July 2024

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