A good day to live on a hill

Last week there was a flood in Dunedin.  David woke up to find the laundry roof, which we thought was fixed, was leaking badly.  We went out in the morning to get run errands and by 11am the Pak n Save carpark had some serious puddles and I had to drive through about 1-foot-deep water in the gutter on the way out.  By the time we drove to Opoho and back, the entire footpath outside Pak-n-Save was under water as well as the taxi parking and only half a lane on each side of the road was out of the water.  As we headed up the hill there was water spurting out of the manhole covers and firemen working around Fulton Rest Home.  Our afternoon drama lesson in Mosgiel was cancelled, which was no surprise as Mosgiel is low and flat.  The rain carried on steadily all day and the water started coming in the back of the laundry cupboards.  When David got home he pried off the (nice, new, freshly painted) plywood from the ceiling and put a bucket under it.  It seems the roof has been leaking for a wee while, probably a washer-nail not sealing properly, but we didn't know because the bats in there has been soaking up the water - so it was just as well we had such a lot of rain or we may not have noticed for a long time.  It filled at least 2 buckets-full by the time the rain stopped.
After tea David went down and picked up Grandma Anderson who lives down on the flat.  She stayed the night, just in case, but the water didn't get into her house.  It was deep enough to come up to the lower step on our van even though David parked with the wheels up on the footpath.  Knee-deep on the road.
The next day we took Grandma Anderson home again, driving through foot-deep water in some places.  There were a lot of people mopping or pumping out their shops, and sandbags everywhere.  Bathgate Park, the local soccer ground, was a big lake, covered with waterbirds, probably eating all the drowned worms.  There were seagulls, ducks, geese, herons, oyster-catchers, etc. all over it.  I wish I'd taken a photo but I was just concentrating on heading home.
Many people have had to strip out their carpets and throw out a lot of stuff that got wet.  I thought about going down and getting some old carpet from the skips down the hill (for biodegradeable weedmat) but it has been contaminated with sewage, not worth it.  It's going to take a while for all the damage to be put right, tarmac lifted off the road in a few places and there were a few slips.  I feel for the people who had water come right through their houses.
A good day to live on a hill.