Auckland Anniversary Floods: Scars Still Linger Two Years On From Storm

Monday, 27 January 2025, 8:57 pm
Article: RNZ

Felix Walton, reporter

Many Aucklanders are still waiting for closure two years after storms damaged thousands of homes throughout the city.

In the North Shore suburb of Milford, damaged houses still dot the streets, marked for demolition after being bought out by Auckland Council.

North Shore councillor Richard Hills said it remained one of the city's worst-affected areas, after torrential rain filled the Wairau Creek and submerged many streets on Auckland Anniversary weekend 2023.

"The night of the floods this area was sort of under two metres of water in some cases," he recalled.

"Obviously on the surface it looks fine, on a sunny day you can't tell the damage that's gone through some of these homes. But this now is one of the highest, if not the highest, areas of buyouts."

Four people died in the floods across Auckland as emergency services responded to about 700 calls for help.

Milford Cruising Club commodore Andrew Robertson was shocked at the scale of the floods.

"The boats were breaking their moorings in the marina, the floats were floating off the top of the poles," he said.

"People were attempting to go through the floodwater, cars were breaking down within the floodwater."

An independent review was highly critical of the council's initial response, one that Hills admitted was chaotic.

"The report speaks for itself that we did drop the ball as a council family. It was chaos, we were trying to redirect buses, we were trying to get messages to people all over the shore," he said.

"It was a pretty scary time and the communication just was completely lacking that night."

The recovery process was similarly controversial. Aucklanders voiced their frustrations at heated community meetings, sometimes cursing at council staff.

Hills said staff took that on the chin.

"This is my job and I don't mind, and I understand people's emotions. Definitely there were some of those early public meetings where people were very angry, were very confused, were very upset," he said.

"There was swearing and other things. Other people just wanted answers. There was a real mix and you expect that in these sorts of situations."

Lyall Carter, the chair of community group West Auckland Is Flooding, had since moved east to Maraetai.

He recently visited his old neighbourhood, a "surreal" experience.

"We were able to go back about a week or so ago to be able to see where our home once stood has started to return to nature and the concrete's been removed, the fences have been removed."

Looking back, he said the community response had stuck with him.

"Those groups that have been on the ground day in and day out, any time that our community has needed them and they've been there," Carter said.

"I cannot thank [enough] the countless people that put up their hand and said, in a time of crisis, in a time of personal crisis, they put up their hand and they said, 'hey, I'm willing to help out.'"

After two years, Carter said many in his community had been able to put the traumatic event behind them.

But others were still seeking closure, something he hoped they would find soon.

© Scoop Media

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