Stephanie and Brendon Deacon live in Huapai, if you could call it “living”.

They first experienced extreme flooding in August 2021, then again in January 2023. The family has lived in limbo after flooding saw them abandon their home in the early hours of the morning in August 2021, grabbing their young children from their beds and taking them to safety on kayaks.

The Auckland Council has assessed the Deacons’ neighbours as Category 3, but the Deacons have been evaluated as being Category 1. Category 3 means that it is no longer safe for people to live there due to an intolerable risk to life from future flooding or landslides. Nine properties around them are in the process of being demolished - the closest is just ten metres away - and people are moving away.

At a meeting on November 6, the council said they’d be engaging a surveyor and structural engineer to carry out further assessments and the report should be available in about three weeks; the Deacons have not seen nor heard from a structural engineer since.

“We have presented extensive assessments and reports from appropriately qualified experts, to the council, and they are continuing to put their heads in the sand, or rather the mud. We have 2m deep water around us when it rains heavily, a four-wheel drive vehicle was dumped near our property by the floods in 2023 and still the council refuses to accept our reports,” says Brendon. “During flooding we have no power, no running water and no sewage.”

A house that has ‘protected’ the family home from floodwater debris is amongst those being demolished which the couple say will leave them even more exposed to the dangers of the heavy rain and flooding.

The Deacons have two young children, aged 5 and 7. The youngest was 1 year old when this all began.

“Our seven-year-old cries when the rain starts and becomes really panicky,” Brendon says. “When we met with the council team at our house in early November, we talked about how upset and panicky the children become when it rains heavily. One of the team said we should manage it the same way you would manage them around a bag of lollies, meaning, just stop just be firm and stop them from doing it. My wife and I were gobsmacked.”

The Deacons have engaged lawyer, Grant Shand who says the decision by Auckland Council is illogical.

“There is no sensible reason to differentiate this young family and their home, from the neighbouring houses. There is a risk to life here,” says Mr Shand. “Just outside the door of the house, the water is upwards of 2 metres deep in flood, and house is unstable. The Deacons categorisation is illogical,” he says.

Flooding in the area has increased since the Council approved the adjacent New World subdivision and Mr Shand says the Council must take responsibility for this.

“I’ve seen what long, stretched out timeframes post a disaster do to people, to families,” he says, having worked with hundreds of people after the Canterbury earthquakes. “No-one wants to head down the path of litigation but sadly the council is leaving the Deacons with little choice.”

Brendon Deacon says three years after the deluge, its mind boggling that they can’t move on.

“All we want is our lives back,” he says. “Good decision making supported by expert reports that clearly show we should be categorised the same as our neighbours, is surely not much to ask.”

Otherwise they are left in a worthless house at risk of death in future flooding.

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