'Rain hasn't stopped': Ōamaru mum devastated after waking to find home 'under water'

An Ōamaru mother-of-four says she is “devastated” after her house flooded this morning as severe weather continues to cause havoc in the Otago region.

Milli Metla said she woke up in the early hours of this morning to find her “whole house was under water”.

“My cat woke me up at 2.56am, meowing like an alarm, and the whole house was under water,” Metla told Ryan Bridge TODAY. “He saved the day.”

She said she had to get out of bed into flood waters.

“I had to go and find my gumboots pretty quickly and strip my socks off and walk through the water.

“The stormwater drains are overloaded so even the fire service couldn’t do a lot.”

Metla, who has four children aged from 6 to 11, said she was “mostly just sad for my kids and animals”.

She said she and her children, three of whom were with her at the time of the flooding, are safe and doing “okay”.

“Cody, the youngest, he slept through everything so he just got carried out by the firefighters and so did the other two. They were pretty good about it.”

Milli Metla woke up to flooding in her home early this morning. Photo / NZME

Metla could be seen standing on a trampoline to stay above flood waters during her interview with Ryan Bridge TODAY, with her home and two cars in the background under water.

“I’m insured for the house and the silver car but I haven’t gotten around to the pink one yet so I’m devastated,” she said.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand shift manager Alex Norris confirmed to the Herald that crews responded to a property in central Ōamaru this morning.

“We had flooding going into a house. We sent one crew from Weston to assist,” Norris said.

“They had ended up using a portable pump to move some of the water away from the house. And in the end, the occupants decided to self-evacuate the house. There were no injuries or anything like that, but the water was above the floorboards, so they left the house.”

‘Definitely not good’

When contacted by the Herald several hours later, Metla – who with her children are safely waiting out the weather at her dad’s house – said “the whole outside of my property is still flooded”.

“I think we’re meant to get some more heavy rain at around 3pm. And it hasn’t stopped,” she said more than eight hours after first noticing flooding in her home.

“I’ve just been on the phone to the insurance company and lodged a claim with them so hopefully that will be accepted.”

She said the damage done to her home and belongings is “definitely not good”.

“The whole inside of the house was under about 30cm of water. It’s going to pretty much be a complete overhaul. I’ll just have to throw everything in a skip and start again.

“[We’re] going to have to wait for all the water to subside and get a few skips and get lots of friends to come and help throw everything away and clean up.”

She said “a lot of people” have been affected by flooding close to where she lives.

More than 60 incidents of flooding overnight

Norris said fire crews are continuing to respond across the Otago region, with more than 60 incidents of flooding in the area since 6pm last night.

He said “that number is climbing”, with crews still responding to a particular incident of flooding to multiple homes in Ōamaru since 8am.

“They found quite a bit of flood water through multiple properties,” Norris said.

“They were setting up to try to pump some away, but it looks like it was only temporarily able to help. We ended up responding back again, and it looks like they’re still pumping water from the properties now to try to clear the water away, but it’s a bit of an ongoing battle for that one to try to keep the water levels down.

“We’re kind of fighting the rain at this point.”

Coastal parts of North Otago remain under an orange heavy rain warning, with MetService expecting a further 20 to 40mm of rain on top of what has already fallen.

MetService warned that streams and rivers may rise rapidly, with surface flooding, slips and difficult driving conditions possible in the area.