KSS April eKourier 2023

FEATURE

IT'S BEEN WET BUT WE STAYED DRY!

C rikey! To say it has been wet in New Zealand the last couple of months would be an understatement. Going into the last weekend of January, the Auckland region experienced a weather bomb up to the scale of a one in one hundred year event, with a state of emergency declared after 539mm (21.2 inches) of rain fell, this far surpassing the previous record of 420mm in 1869. This was a good reminder of the value of ensuring all storm water drains and gutters are kept clear and clean, to ensure they work at maximum potential, for times like these when you really need them. Fortunately none of our Auckland sites were affected, and as a result of these events, we have experienced increased occupancy at our established Mt Eden and Three Kings sites, and our new Wairau Valley site has successfully reached high performance occupancy

above 85% as well.

Hastings site was cut off for three days due to surrounding street surface flooding. Fortunately again, non of the these sites were affected by the storm and experienced extra demand and occupancy as the clean up of the region began. Both events really enforce the saying, “If it's worth storing, it is worth insuring". Next time you make a Care Call, remind customers that events like the above can happen at any time (storms do not just happen in Winter). In a disaster there are two types of customers, the insured customer and the uninsured customer. I will let you decide who is the easiest to deal with.

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NEXT TIME YOU MAKE A CARE CALL, REMIND CUSTOMERS THAT EVENTS LIKE THE ABOVE CAN HAPPEN AT ANY TIME

As if what happened in January wasn't enough, a couple of weeks later along comes Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle. All the media hype of Auckland having another weather bomb turned out to be fake news. Unfortunately, the track of the cyclone had a devastating affect on the Hawkes Bay region, where we have our Onekawa, Napier and Hastings sites. ‘

Andrew Kirkham NZ Operations Manager

Napier and Onekawa sites were without power for a week and access to our

11 Kennards Kourier April 2023