Wellington homes destroyed by slip

First terror, then financial pain after slip

They woke to the sound of trees ripping down the hillside under their Wellington home, and were forced to run from the devastation with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

the Dominion,

2 June, 2013

Jono Maulder and Rhia Williams' rental property in Priscilla Cres has been left teetering on a freshly formed cliff face after a landslide tore under their deck early on Saturday morning.

The pair were woken by their landlords, William Chezick and Sarah Jackson, who live in the house in front, as tonnes of dirt slid down the hill beneath them.

"We got out with the clothes we are standing in here today," Mr Maulder said.

"Our priority was personal safety. We got out and we're not allowed back in there."

Mr Chezick and Ms Jackson knocked on their tenants' door and called out to them about 4.30am to get out as soon as possible.

"Two more metres of fill going down the hill and it would have been a very different story for Jono and Rhia," Mr Chezick said.

Residents say the ground could be heard cracking as the slip began, sending tonnes of dirt careering down a bank and leaving a trail 40 metres wide by 100 metres long.

"We could hear the ground falling away. It was like slomp, slomp. You could hear it disappearing," said one resident.

"Our house has got a hole under it."

The landslide will carry a ratepayer price tag of at least $100,000, with the Earthquake Commission likely to step in and cover some homeowner losses.

But others could be left out of pocket, with all the land carved away from backyards unlikely to be eligible for cover.

An investigation is still no closer to finding its cause, but Wellington City Council says there are no signs at this stage that it is liable.

Council spokesman Richard MacLean yesterday put the cost of the landslide at "hundreds of thousands of dollars", including the cost of reinstating the damaged sewerage and stormwater drains, and short-term accommodation for the 35 currently homeless residents.

Three houses have had their foundations undermined, and could face demolition.

"There will obviously be discussions with insurers and EQC and other interested parties, but one of the issues that was discussed today was the fact that a lot of the evidence is now buried here at the bottom of the slip, so it will be difficult to pinpoint the reason for the slip.

"There's no glaring evidence from yesterday or from the background that says the council or anyone is liable for this.

"If the council is found to be liable, and there's no indication yet that we would be or should be, it would be a matter between council and the insurers."

Wellington Mayor Celia Wade-Brown said rumours the landslide had been caused by a water main burst or leak in Priscilla Cres itself were unfounded.

A sewerage and stormwater main had been destroyed by the landslide. About 50 metres of the piping that had initially crossed the slope below the houses was now under rubble.

"It is not clear whether the shifting slope fractured the pipes or whether leaks in the pipes could have saturated the slope.

"This issue will obviously be central to any investigation into the landslide - but given the damage the original cause may never be found."

It was hoped residents of at least five houses could returnto their homes either today or tomorrow.

The council is paying for about half of the evacuated residents to stay in motels until Tuesday. The rest have made their own arrangements.

"We do have a welfare role here ... we have a moral responsibility to try and help out. It's not an admission of liability or anything like that," Mr MacLean said.

The council was speaking to Housing New Zealand and its own housing staff to arrange rental accommodation for people who could not return to their houses.

An EQC spokesman said one of its engineers had been at the scene since 9am on Saturday.

If claims were accepted, they could cover land damage for the minimum lot size or eight metres from the house, whichever was of lesser value.

Ms Williams was more concerned about the welfare of her cat Lewis than the potential loss of all her worldly possessions.

Lewis has been missing since the earth slid out from underneath her house.

"I was really upset to lose Lewis. He is a skittish grey tabby. If the slip did not come down on him it is possible he might even still be in the house."

House owners Mr Chezick, a self-employed builder, and Ms Jackson were devastated at the thought of their investment property possibly sliding down the hill.

Their properties were fully insured with AMI.

WELLINGTON LANDSLIDES

Torrential rain in 2006 caused the last major landslide in Wellington.

One house was destroyed and three others damaged when a gully edge in Lower Hutt collapsed during a rainstorm on August 7.

Residents in Vista Grove and Levin Grove said they heard a "huge, huge bang and roar" just before 9pm.

The back garden of Ann and Nigel Nation's home had collapsed into the gully.

A hole 50 metres wide had wiped out what was once lawn and gardens.

Mrs Nation told reporters she went outside to find a "huge waterfall" several metres wide.

"It was making a terrible noise and a terrible smell."

They were evacuated, along with residents of three neighbouring houses.

The other homes were saved, but the Nation's was demolished later that week.

A report by Hutt City Council found the slip was caused by poor workmanship during construction of the subdivision in the 1960s, coupled with record rainfalls over the winter of 2006.

Foliage had not been cleared when filling in the land. It decomposed and acted as "a natural landslide lubricant", the council said.

Council spokesman Don Carson said it was a miracle the land had lasted 40 years.

The Kelson slip was one of more than 300 landslides in Wellington triggered by horrendous weather over the winter of 2006.