Five students homeless after Wellington flood

The entire bottom storey of our house (two bedrooms, a bathroom, the kitchen, and the living area) flooded on Monday April 20th at 4am. I woke up to find my bed floating above the ground atop about a metre of water. Almost nothing downstairs is salvageable and the house is going to be entirely uninhabitable for several months.

We are between 20-23 years old, and are all students or beneficiaries who have very limited funds and savings, so we unfortunately did not have contents or renter’s insurance. We’ve already been facing huge costs with disposing of our ruined items, cleaning everything that has been in the house, finding temporary accomodation, and replacing food, medications, toiletries, and other immediately essential items. We’re currently in short-term accomodation provided by City Mission, and we’re anticipating a lot more costs over the next few months as we need to find accomodation beyond this week and eventually a new house, so will have moving costs plus the costs of replacing things that were ruined (like beds and bedding, clothes, furniture, electronics, etc.).

We are all very shaken and know now how devastating floods and other extreme weather events can be, and we know that there are many other people and families who have lost their homes, belongings, and/or livelihoods in similar, or even more severe, ways. Any surplus money that we raise will be put towards helping other people in need.