In 2021, just eight months after moving his family into their West Auckland property, Trushar’s house was flooded and they lost many household items. It was a huge inconvenience but nothing like the trauma the family experienced on 27 January 2023.
When the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods went through Trushar’s home the floodwaters rose so rapidly that his family had no time to save anything. They waded out and left behind everything they owned; they are still unable to return.
Auckland Anniversary Weekend wasn’t the first time our property had flooded. In fact, it’s flooded a total of seven times. After the Anniversary Weekend flooding, we went to a hotel. We had no idea what else to do and we felt very alone. When we heard there were centres people could go to and find out about what help was available we went to the Kelston Centre. That’s where we first met people from Visionwest. We were given a place to stay in a Visionwest apartment. It was only temporary, just eight or nine days, but at least we weren’t paying motel rates for accommodation. Eventually we were placed in a TAS [Temporary Accommodation Service] home where we are still living.
Like many flood-affected families, perhaps the biggest challenge for Trushar and his family was that they didn’t know what resources or help were available to them. After Cyclone Gabrielle (which sent more floodwaters through their now uninhabitable home), they went to the Civil Defence Centre that had been set up at The Trusts Stadium in Henderson. It was here that they met Becks, one of Visionwest’s Community Connectors.
Meeting Becks and others from Visionwest was amazing. The first thing, and perhaps the most valuable thing, they gave us was hope. She made sure we were okay and had the essential things we needed. She asked, if we needed food, and whether we were warm and healthy. That’s when we started our journey with Visionwest.
Trushar and his family came to Aotearoa New Zealand ten years ago, worked hard and were incredibly excited to be able to buy their own home just over three years ago – since then it has flooded seven times. The aftermath of the latest floods showed Trushar how little he knew about how some systems and processes work in his new homeland. Because both he and his wife have fulltime jobs and his two daughters are doing well at school, he’d never had to deal with insurance claims or government support agencies.
Visionwest were amazing the way they helped us. I had no idea how to deal with the banks or the insurance companies or the Government or Council. I didn’t know what support we were entitled to or where to go to access it. Becks and so many teams from Visionwest were running around for us to find answers so that my wife and I could focus on work to make sure that we had money coming in. We were paying our mortgage and would soon have to pay rent as well.
Visionwest helped us with food from the Pātaka Kai and the new social supermarket, and we are receiving counselling support. Also, our kids have been out on fun days with Visionwest and other families who were affected by the flooding. These things made my family happy and, if they are happy, it makes me happy. For this, I can’t thank every single person at Visionwest enough.
Trushar’s decision to ask for help
Many people, when faced with tough times, are hesitant to ask for help. They are used to doing things for themselves and figure there are always people worse off than what they are. Trushar was like that at first. When his home flooded for the first time in 2021, he didn’t go anywhere to ask for help. But this time it was different.
After these floods, I realised things were beyond my control. I couldn’t just sit down in a quiet place and cry. I could see my wife was not sleeping, nor were my kids. Little things became big things, especially for the girls. For instance, their school was about to open and everything we had was gone. Their toys were gone, their books and special things were gone, even the fancy plastic to cover their schoolbooks had been destroyed by the floodwater. That’s when I realised the burden I was carrying around and how stressed I was by it all. The people from Visionwest told me, ‘It’s okay to ask for the help,’ so I did.
Trushar is now quite philosophical about asking and receiving help from Visionwest and others. He’s quick to point out that there are certain things in life you can control while there are many things you cannot and, in those cases, it’s best to reach out to others for help. Issues to do with mental health is one of those areas he mentions.
Being smart or pretending to be courageous or not speaking to others is not always wise. Sometimes you just have to say, ‘Hey, I’m struggling. I need help. I need a way out. I need something to pull me out of this.’ And, when you have a family to look after, it’s really important that you get whatever support you need to help them.
When he talks about his house and the flooding, Trushar’s face drops. He realises now that, despite being consented and well-built, his home and those of his close neighbours are on a floodplain. After being flooded seven times, he realises it will continue to flood whenever there is heavy rain.
I know I’m not the only person with this problem. Many people in West Auckland are selling properties after this incident and, if I wanted to be selfish, I could sell my property. I could wait for a dry day and pass it onto someone else. But I don’t want to do that because I know the property is going to keep flooding and flooding and flooding. I don’t want to put somebody’s life at risk because that’s the truth – anyone who lives there is at risk because there is so much water that comes through the house and yard.
Remaining positive
Despite what he’s been through and the challenges that lie ahead for Trushar as he works through issues related to insurance and negotiates with the Council over what should happen with his property, he remains amazingly buoyant and positive.
I look at my wife and my kids. When I want to cry, I hug my kids and cry or sleep with them. And I know that if I want to get through this, I need them to be happy because they are my strength. That’s how everybody thinks isn’t it? We think about our future generations, especially our children, and we want them to have a good life full of opportunities and happiness. That’s all I’m after, it’s all I’m wishing and hoping for. I keep my head smiling and my chin up because I’m the man of the house and I’ve got three ladies – my two daughters and my wife – to take care of.
That’s why Visionwest has been so good for us. They have provided food, shelter, clothing, furniture, not just for us but for so many families. What Visionwest does is vital, after all, kids don’t sleep without food and a family doesn’t sleep without a roof over their head. Visionwest has given us this and more, so what else we could ask for?
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By late-June 2023, Visionwest had been able to: support 3,152 households with food; open a pop-up pantry for whānau who had lost everything in the flooding; provide $219,766 worth of replacement household items to 84 households; provide 171 counselling sessions to whānau affected by flooding, along with seven community group sessions and visits to five schools to help pupils impacted by trauma associated with the flooding, personally visit 164 red or yellow-stickered homes to check on residents and ensure they had food and other necessities; support 296 households who had contacted us with accommodation needs. Click here to read the Visionwest Flood and Cyclone Report.
If you are still experiencing challenging effects from the 2023 floods in Tāmaki Makaurau, click here to read about the Auckland Storm Recovery Navigation service. To contact Visionwest’s Storm Recover Navigator, phone 0800 990 026
**We understand that it is a great privilege when someone generously agrees to share their story. This blog and other material are shared with Trushar’s permission and we thank him for his generosity and aroha.