Paeroa faces bleak winter

Press, 15 May 1981, Page 2

Paeroa faces bleak winter

P A Hamilton More than 100 Paeroa residents who are still homeless after the devastating flooding in the area a month ago face a long, cold winter living in caravans or sleeping on the floors of homes of friends and relatives. Cold weather ' during the last two days has | driven home to the 5 town’s residents that ; winter is approaching, I with the clean-up still nowhere near complete. The Mayor of Paeroa, Mr Ted Leigh, said that many families were living in caravans on their still-soggy sections while trying to repair their houses during the day. Nearly 1000 people were evacuated at the height of the flooding when the stopbanks protecting the town from the Ohinemuri River burst. Mr Leigh said that in spite of their continuing hardship Paeroa’s residents were in good spirits. f He said, “But it is a pretty traumatic experience for everybody and we will not get over it easily. As we move into winter it makes it a little bit harder to take all the mess that still remains.” : Mr Leigh said that it / would be next year bef fore the town had completely recovered.