Surviving the destruction of the ‘perfect storm’

When it rains it pours.

Well, in Toko Mouth it blew, crashed and flooded, all in one day - and then it started to smell.

The power was restored to the small South Otago hamlet on Sunday after 11 days and it was very much welcomed by the community.

Resident Maree Black said the day of the big wind, October 23, was when it all happened.

"We were up in Dunedin and it took us four hours to get home. It was catastrophic - that is the only way to describe it. It was full-on destruction," she said.

"There were trees falling everywhere and it was like a bomb site."

She said at the same time the sand bar at Toko Mouth got blocked and the river had nowhere to go.

"It was, unfortunately, a perfect storm, as our river mouth blocked off with a sand bar, so the road flooded with power lines down."

That left a small village with no power, trees all over the place and power lines lying over a flooded road.

But they survived.

Mrs Black said she had a gas hob, which came in handy for preparing meals and as everyone had food going off in unpowered freezers the food quickly got cooked.

Plenty of firewood got used and, as she said, "you just do what you can do to survive."

She was lucky enough to get her hands on a generator a couple of days after the event.

But there was an issue with the toilets.

"We are all on septic tanks down here and they need electricity. It was starting to smell a bit," she said.

The electric pump in the tank moves the waste to the drain field.

So, when the power came back on the system started working and the smell became even more prominent as the tanks moved waste all at the same time.

Lister Helicopters owner and pilot Alister Lister said there was widespread damage across South Otago.

During his work spraying farms he had witnessed trees, infrastructure and power lines all over the place.

While the recovery effort was in full swing and the workers were doing everything they could, there was a lot of destruction.

It was hard to put a number on downed power poles.

Mr Lister said the damage was sporadic through the wider South Otago community.

Through the Lawrence-Waitahuna area damage was quite bad, as it was in Clinton and Clydevale, while the Blue Mountains was not as extensive.

Flying gave a real perspective on how destructive the wind was.

A Toko Mouth resident, who declined to give her name, went 11 days without power.

Yesterday, she was counting down the minutes before it was restored.

She and her neighbour shared a small generator between them to keep the essentials, such as their fridges, working.

The road to Milton had been flooded and she was stuck in her Toko Mouth crib for a few days.

She was reliant on her wetback wood burner to heat water, cook food and make hot drinks.

PowerNet said yesterday there were still 48 properties in Southland and 67 in South Otago without power.