Without a paddle

Homeowners in flood-prone areas face huge risk as insurers abandon them. And with sea level rise gaining on us, there's little sign of a plan for 'managed retreat'.

- EMMA RICKETTS

When the water levels started rising around Claire O'Connor Bryant's house near Eskdale during Cyclone Gabrielle, she knew W she had to act quickly. She rounded up her son and flatmates and together they sought refuge in the rafters of the barn, the highest point of the property.

She describes several large trees - up to 15m long-being carried past her outbuildings below. "Everything on my property - the cars, the caravans and everything else - was all caught up in the trees, making a whirlpool. We were sitting in my turn-of-the-century barn. The glass windows are very old and there was one tree with a huge trunk that was bashing on them. We were just sitting there waiting for another surge to take the building down."

The experience sounds like something from a nightmare - but for O'Connor Bryant, the nightmare isn't over.

Eskdale is a low-lying coastal community just north of Napier. The Esk River, which burst its banks during the cyclone, runs through it. Under land categorisations devised by the Crown, O'Connor Bryant's property was placed in category 3 by Hastings District Council, meaning it is in an area deemed too dangerous to live in due to flood risk. Although it makes her eligible for the council's voluntary buy-out scheme, there's little to be relieved about: rent for her temporary home and mortgage payments for the damaged property add up to more than she earns in a week as a property manager.

Nor is O'Connor Bryant confident she will be able to buy a new house: hers is one of 287 properties designated category 3 in post-cyclone Hawke's Bay. "There just aren't that many houses out there to buy," she says. "There's a huge amount of pressure on the market after the cyclone and prices are going up."