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Angelic Seputich and Hamish Murray, with their daughter Portia, mopping up after their family’s home at Omaha was flooded for the third time in four years. Despite raising the floor level after the last flood, an estimated 84,000 litres washed through the house.
By Rod CheesemanMore than 60 angry Omaha residents demanded immediate action from Auckland Council stormwater engineers at a community meeting on July 15.
The residents lambasted the engineers for saying the major storm on July 8, which caused almost 30 houses to be flooded at Omaha’s northern end, was a ‘one in 100 year event’.
Many have been flooded multiple times over the last few years and are now unable to insure their properties. Jane Lobb has had her home for nine years and is tired of cleaning up flood damage.
“We were ankle deep in water at our home for the third time in four years,” Jane says. “This isn’t a one in 100 years event; it’s now the norm! Council needs to find a solution that works or perhaps we should start withholding our rates.”
Engineers implemented temporary measures such as soak pits following widescale flooding last Christmas. Dianne Morrow has lived in Omaha for 30 years and had never been flooded until recently. She believes the flooding is a direct result of these temporary measures.
“They built a soak pit right on my boundary,” Dianne says. “Last Thursday, I was flooded for the first time. There are more people living here now, garages are turned into flats, flats into houses so that’s more stormwater. The water came in on both sides of my house and met in the bloody middle! We lifted the carpets up and the insurance company said, ‘We’re not going to insure you’.”
Council’s healthy waters (formerly stormwater) manager Craig Mcilroy admits they need to adapt their initial plan.
“Our operations engineers have visited nearly all flooded properties and a modified action plan will be prepared and available in due course,” Mr Mcilroy says.
As to the question of why the area keeps flooding, Mr Mcilroy cited three areas of concern – very heavy storms, which exceeded the normal design standards for the public stormwater networks; an inadequate or inefficient local stormwater network; and the lack of a well-defined secondary overland flow path. He also stated that residents would be notified of the long-term solution in the “near future”.
Ms Lobb was one of many residents who voiced concerns over protecting their own property at the expense of their neighbours.
“We have thought about putting in retaining walls and digging trenches but that will just put the problem onto someone else. The people behind us did that after the Christmas flood and that’s why we copped a lot more of it. They put pipes onto the walkway and now it flows down into my house.”
The meeting was organised by Omaha Beach Community chair Peter Hooper. He says that 28 households have contacted him. Roughly half of those homes were also flooded in the storm last Christmas.
“I’m shocked that this many people have been so badly affected,” Mr Hooper says.
“The northern Omaha design is just not working properly. The way the roads flood, the lack of flood-pits, no kerb or channeling, and then the other issue of the properties at the bottom of the hill taking everyone else’s run off. There needs to be a lot of thought put into how changes are made.”
Cr Penny Webster attended the meeting and addressed the angry group of residents. She said these sort of problems were becoming more widespread as Mahurangi continued to grow.
“Throughout Auckland we are looking at spending billions, not millions, on stormwater,” Cr Webster said.
“If we are going to get these types of weather events, we have to do something. We will be making a submission from the committee to the next Long Term Plan (LTP).”
The next LTP meeting won’t be until next year, when Council decides on spending for the next 10 years.
Meanwhile, Minister for the Environment Dr Jan Wright warned last year that increased sea level would also have a direct impact on coastal flooding. Sea levels are predicted to rise by 30 centimetres over the next 50 years. Climate change is also predicted to increase the frequency of heavy rainfall events as the annual mean temperature increases.
