A family who have been hit twice by South Dunedin floods - once in 2015, and again this month - want the government to take stronger action on climate change and adaptation.
Julie and Gavin Wheeler said they were more prepared this time and left their Plunket St house the day before the October 4 and 5 floods.
"We came back on October 4 ... and we felt water on our feet," Ms Wheeler said.
"So we knew it was going to be bad.
"When we got home, on the Saturday, the water was about an inch away from coming in the house, and I was thinking, ‘Oh maybe it won't, maybe it won't.’
"But you know in your heart that it's going to."
"Lots of people were driving down the street, and that was causing water to come in.
"So we rang the council and said, ‘Can you get the road closed, because it's just horrendous."’
After the flooding subsided, they realised that, much like the 2015 floods, flood-damaged parts of the walls needed to be torn down and replaced.
They did not know how long the repair job would take - but in 2015, it was several months.
Ms Wheeler said it was "an advantage, as well as a disadvantage" that they knew how to respond to the event this time around.
However, they wanted the government to listen to communities affected by such events.
"We want this action to happen sooner rather than later," she said.
Ms Wheeler said projects such as South Dunedin Future had a lot of community buy-in, and government support was needed.
The programme is a joint initiative between Dunedin City Council and Otago Regional Council to find ways to respond to climate change and flooding problems in South Dunedin.
"I think the government kind of needs to somehow speed things up a bit because these events are happening more and more," Ms Wheeler said.
Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick and Green list MP Scott Willis were taken through the house as part of their visit to South Dunedin.
Ms Swarbrick said the Dunedin community had learned a lot since the 2015 South Dunedin floods, and this was evidenced in the swifter and more co-ordinated response this time around.
"But what's really evident when I'm talking to people is that they want action on meaningful climate adaptation."
An "amazing blueprint" for that existed in the South Dunedin Future programme, Ms Swarbrick said.
The Dunedin City Council learned earlier this year its bid for $132.5 million from the Treasury’s National Resilience Plan to buy at-risk properties or sites to convert into flood mitigation systems in South Dunedin would not go ahead.
"We would implore the government to reopen that door and see this as an incredible blueprint for what it looks like to do meaningful climate adaptation," Ms Swarbrick said.
During his visit to Dunedin last week, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said a climate adaptation framework needed to be put in place for the whole of New Zealand.
Ms Swarbrick said the prime minister should have listened to the city council’s appeal.
"It seems pretty clear that there weren't open lines of communication and I think that that's incredibly dispiriting and disappointing."
