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Six relatives had to carry their 76-year-old bedridden grandmother on a sheet to escape raging floodwaters around their home.
Cassie Ormsby’s ancestral home in Māngere was flooded amid record-setting rainfall on Friday that damaged thousands of homes and left at least four people dead.
The 36-year-old said her mum called her about 6pm to say the family had to evacuate.
She was stuck in traffic in the city because of the flooding, so called family and friends for help.
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Family from Papatoetoe made it to the house, but could not get their car into the driveway as the rapidly rising water was already waist-deep.
Five of the group used a sheet to carry Ormsby’s grandmother, Kathleen Ormsby, from her bed to a boat in the driveway. They waited about 20 minutes for the flooding to settle before shifting her from the boat to a nearby truck.
“Since she can’t sit, we had to lie her in the back of the car with her feet hanging over the car’s window. It was horrific,” Cassie Ormsby said.
Her grandfather, Trevor Ratu-Ormsby, 77, said it took ages to reach Papatoetoe from Māngere.
“It was a nightmare.”
The family’s ordeal is still not over though, as they worry about Kathleen Ormsby’s care.
The Alzheimer’s sufferer is unable to walk, sit or speak.
“My nan is bedridden… She has been bedridden for one year,” Cassie Ormsby said.
“She was using a hospital bed catering to her special needs, but we lost it in the floods.”
The family had a mattress for her to lie on it, but it was too hard and she had already developed pressure sores.
“If she is not given a hospital bed, it could be life-threatening for her.
“It is a lot harder to move her on this mattress, change her clothes, feed her, and give her a sponge bath.”
Ormsby sister, Tammi Ormsby travelled from Rotoroa to be with the family after they were evacuated. She said they lost all of their belongings, but their concern was for their grandmother.
“Everything has been washed away. We have lost all the furniture, souvenirs, and photographs of my nan’s father who was in Māori Battalion.
“We can’t afford to lose our grandmother now.”
Kathleen Ormsby and Trevor Ratu-Ormsby have since moved from Māngere to their granddaughter’s house in Papatoetoe. The family was provided with nurses from Mapu Maia and Middlemore Hospital on Monday.
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