The bad news and the good news
- David Pine | NZIJ RISK MANAGEMENT LTD
Usually when we have a violent weather event, Margaret and I say to each other, âWeâll probably get a few phone calls about claims tomorrowâ. But sometimes we are pleasantly surprised.
On Thursday afternoon 23rd July there was a heavy rain storm in Wellington. We had 100 mm (about 3 inches) of rain in two hours.
During the storm I was chairing a meeting at our home in Whitby, prior to going on to our weekly Rotary meeting. As the rain poured down we had to lean forward to hear what each other was saying.
After a time I began to wonder whether we might have to abandon the Rotary meeting. The venue for this is located near the Paremata roundabout just off State Highway 1.
When we arrived in the car park for the Rotary meeting, it was awash with run-off from the hill above. The drains weren’t coping at all, and even though we parked in what we thought was shallow water, we still stepped out into about 200 mm of brown muddy run-off.
The rain continued to teem down. The water from the car park was pouring across the highway into the sea and cars were inching along in the terrible conditions.
We eventually arrived at the meeting venue, and a group of more bedraggled people would be hard to find. Large numbers of club members had been affected by road closures and were unable to make the meeting.
Not long after we arrived the rain eased and then stopped altogether.
Afterwards, due to continuing road closures, some of the members were unable to drive home, and had to walk along the highway. This was no ordinary storm.
The next morning we arrived at work expecting a barrage of phone calls from people wanting to make claims. No calls came. We couldn’t believe it. So while some roads were badly affected, none of our clients suffered. It turned out to be just another normally busy day in the insurance business.
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