The Gisborne Mayor is hoping the rain goes away after the district was hit with another deluge and flooding.
Fifteen families had to evacuate on Monday night and one home gained a sleepout after it was ripped from a neighbouring property.
The stormwater and wastewater systems aren't coping. They are overwhelmed and so too are the residents.
It all started at 3am and ended just an hour later. The water, with such power and force, swept a sleepout from one house to another.
"I was just trying to fix up some gas tanks back to the wall, make them secure so we didn't lose gas and power, and then next minute this house just crashed into the bridge next to me," flood victim Ben Florance said.
Florance said he didn't see it, but he heard his mum scream out.
"I was up to my tits in the water and it was very fast flowing, but I was holding onto things and climbing up here," he said.
He escaped but the house next door didn't. It's now covered in silt and debris with everything downstairs ruined.
"Three o'clock, woke up with the sound of rain coming down so heavy, a bit like it was going backwards," homeowner Rob Moore told Newshub.
"It just shocks you. This is the first time I've got emotional about it. It doesn't hit you, you are in the moment. Nothing you can do about it, not a thing."
At 3am, the water just came gushing into one room called the man cave. On the back wall, it's obvious how far it went as well as on a chest-high pole.
"Everything, the couches, the fridge, the drawers, all started to float and it took some time before it went back down to ground level," he said.
One car at his property was broken into the night before and was put into the garage for safety. Now it is in ruins.
Two streets over, one family woke up early on Tuesday morning to a terrifying sight.
"It was just a big crash and the next thing a big torrent right through our whole property then it settled, then it blocked up again and then we got another big huge rush right through," Alistair Jenkins said.
In all, about 15 houses were evacuated in the middle of the night, with surf lifesavers and their boats brought in to help.
"Man it was so lucky to get away with and for it to recede when it did because it would have been absolutely horrific," surf lifesaver Justin Martin said.
Part of the problem is the water infrastructure, which isn't up to the task of taking the big dumps of rain.
"Under these circumstances, our stormwater and wastewater systems can not cope. So we would be opening scours to enable these systems to drain," Gisborne Mayor Rehette Stoltz said.
"We are asking anyone if they notice sewerage going into your property, please just let us know, we are here to help," she said.
Locals are over the rain. They're tired, anxious and stressed.
Newshub asked Mayor Stoltz if Gisborne could take any more rain.
"We can but we don't want to. We need a break. We need to be able to get all our energy into recovery," she said.
But then hope emerges, with baby chicks surviving the flood to cross the road.
It's that little something that brightens the grimmest of grey days.
