South Dunedin residents face months of clean-ups and homelessness after floods

Some South Dunedin residents are reassessing their futures in the flood-prone area, as they squelch through their sodden properties, cleaning up after last week's downpour.

Many are facing months away from their homes while they are repaired, and there are calls for the council to look again at buying out properties in low-lying areas.

Along a section of Bradshaw Street in South Dunedin, yellow stickers are slapped on front windows - homes unsafe to occupy after floodwater gushed through them late last week.

On Monday, residents were busy clearing out their belongings - some for storage, some for the tip.

Gareth and Dyan O'Malley moved south after the Canterbury earthquakes in 2011. But they could not escape Mother Nature - their home was ruined in the 2015 floods, and again just a few days ago.

Gareth told RNZ they were on edge every time there was a heavy rain warning, and that was no way to live.

This time, it looked like they would be out for six months. The couple and their two kids would look for a rental, but there would be no room for their big dogs Bolt and Blaze, who were off to stay with family in Nelson.

At some stage, they would need to take stock and consider their future.

Read more:

• How to clean your home after a flood
• In pictures: Otago's wettest week
• 'Scary night': Dunedin residents says flood like nothing they've seen

Earlier this year, Dunedin City Council asked the government for $130 million for a fund to help buy out low-lying, flood-prone South Dunedin properties as part of its climate adaptation strategy.

That bid was rejected - but Gareth O'Malley said it was worth looking at.

"You don't really want to stay since we've flooded twice in 10 years, but at the same time, property value has gone down because of that so you sort of get a bit stuck.

"We're in two minds about whether we try [to] raise the house ... but we don't want to look at those options if we find seven years down the track they buy us out - then we've just spent a whole heap of money that's pointless."

During a visit to Dunedin on Monday by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Minister for Emergency Management and Recovery Mark Mitchell, RNZ asked why Treasury turned down the council's funding bid.

They said they knew nothing about it.

Dunedin city councillor and infrastructure services committee chairperson Jim O'Malley said the South Dunedin buyout option should be revisited, and he did not know why it was declined either.

Buying homes as they came on the market would be more cost-effective in the long term, and easier on residents, he said.

"If you wait till the last moment and then do emergency buyouts, that costs you a lot of money.

"There's an opportunity to get in there and get control of houses that you want to get control of in a way that doesn't require you evicting people and doing forced buyouts."

Indeed, buyouts would not be popular all round.

Flood-affected resident Brendon Hollander said he was not keen, having worked so hard with his wife to make their home here.

"We chose this area because we love it: It's close to the beach, it's close to everything, the kids love it here ... it's not really something we wanna do."

Hollander said they knew of the flood risk when they bought - but he believed it would be safe if infrastructure was up to scratch.

The council had clearly "done some good" with infrastructure improvements over the past decade, because the flooding was not as bad as 2015, he said.

But other residents and Dunedin mayor Jules Radich have told RNZ there was plenty more to be done to safeguard South Dunedin.

O'Malley said the council was modelling options such as pumping water on to the former racecourse, Forbury Park, which it bought earlier this year.

But assessment was ongoing, and the council wanted to make sure it was the right place for it, he said.