My Account
Heavy rain on May 9 and overnight the next day caused flooding, slips and damage to homes on the Hibiscus Coast with parts of Whangaparāoa, Ōrewa, Puhoi and Dairy Flat again hit.
Auckland Council issued a local state of emergency and on the Coast, St Stephen’s Church in Whangaparāoa was on standby as a potential shelter.
The council offices in Centreway Road, Ōrewa, had to be abandoned and many schools and Stanmore Bay Leisure Centre were closed due to flash flooding.
Water sheeted down roads and concrete driveways, logs floated through Stanmore Bay stream and there were two landslips on private property in Manly.
Local emergency services were kept busy. Local fire crews, paid and volunteer, attended flooded businesses and properties including some on Ōrewa beachfront; they also assisted when a car in a Whangaparāoa carpark floated on thigh high water into another vehicle.
Driving became hazardous and many Coast residents were caught up in the weather trying to get home from work.
The first NX1 bus to leave the city after the emergency alert overcame significant challenges in getting commuters home. One passenger, Red Beach business owner Tania Cottew, says it took just over an hour and a half to get from the city to Smales Farm, with the driver diverting several times because of flooding on the bus lane.
Just prior to this event, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown issued a press release that stated Council needed leadership from central government on storm-related compensation.
“Affected Aucklanders want clear communication, direction, and leadership from central and local government to help them make decisions about where they live. People want to know who moves and who pays,” Mayor Brown said.
“When Council says ‘no’ to any building work or development at risk of flooding, that has to carry more weight. In many cases, where houses were allowed to be built in areas with a history of flooding and land instability, the lessons of the past had been forgotten, central government mandates had changed local building and planning rules, or Council’s position had been overruled, often in the Environment Court,” he said.
“Our current position is that Council is not a guarantor of private property interests, and we are generally not responsible for compensating property owners in case of loss due to a severe weather event or natural disaster.”
At the Governing Body workshop, the Mayor stated he would prefer that Council work with property owners, not on managed retreat but building storm resilience.
As the paper goes to print, the cleanup has begun and the State of Emergency lifted.
