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Scenes on Surrey Street, South Dunedin, Friday evening. Photo: RNZ / Nathan Mckinnon
Nearly 50 properties across Dunedin were red or yellow-stickered in the floods which hit the city and surrounds ten days ago.
Many of them are in low lying South Dunedin where some residents are struggling to find accommodation, with others moving from motel to motel every few days.
Options for climate adaptation in that part of the city has been the primary focus of the South Dunedin Future working group - run by the Dunedin City Council and Otago Regional Council.
Earlier this year Dunedin City Council applied to Treasury's National Resilience Plan for $132.5m to buy up at risk South Dunedin properties, but was knocked back.
The decision was raised with the Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell when they visited Dunedin in the wake of the rain event: neither of them had ever heard of it.
But Prime Minister Luxon said the government's approach is to develop a nationwide climate adaption framework- to be revealed early next year - not a "bespoke response".
Sophie Barker is a Dunedin City Councillor who's part of the South Dunedin Future working group.