A 97-year-old man and his wife waited on the third floor of their flood devastated Esk Valley house for two days before being rescued.
Frank Desborough says he was woken at 2am on 14 February by a thunderous noise.
He describes the surreal scene he saw from his window.
The water slowly rose into the house coming all the way up to his knees on the third floor.
Eventually it started to recede leaving masses of silt in its wake.
Desborough said with no power or phone all he and his wife Kerry could do was wait in the sodden house, living off stocks of tinned food.
The emergency services arrived after relatives reported the couple missing.
They had to crawl up the hill behind their house on their hands and knees to get out, because it was too steep for them to be carried.
Desborough said he's been back to the house twice since, and the destruction is hard to comprehend.
His wife Kerry has been his rock throughout it all.
They've managed to salvage a few important things from their home, and are heading to Palmerston North to stay with relatives.
