Four to five hours changed a lifetime for Laslo and Cherie Kopilovic.
Their Frasertown Road home and business, right on Wairoa’s township boundary, was destroyed in the Cyclone Gabrielle floodwaters with the determined couple on a journey to rebuilding.
The former beekeeper, Frasertown School teacher aide, and their sons, Luke and Ben, had lived in the two- storey home for nine years when Cyclone Gabrielle struck. “Our son came back from a bike ride and said there was water coming up the road.
“With the Awatere Stream a boundary on one side of their property, they were quickly surrounded by water that rose to the top of fences and went through the lower storey of the house up to about 30cm.
The floodwaters also took out the couple’s honey extraction business. “Four to five hours in a lifetime changed everything completely, our business and our home, nothing is normal.”
The family initially stayed in their house, living upstairs with lots of community support and offerings of food and laundry services. “People helped us, they dug over our veggie gardens. We still haven’t emptied the swimming pool, which is full of silt and had fish from the river swimming in it.
“It’s been a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs. We are not sure exactly what our future journey will be, we just need to get back into our home and see how we feel.
“It is hard living in limbo, but with work on our yellow stickered home now underway, we hope to be back in our home as soon as possible.”
Caption: After a long eight-month slog, Laslo and Cherie Kopilovic are looking forward to being back in their home.
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