Flooding closes roads, inundates homes in Auckland
Friday, 5 January 2018
A flooded-out Kohimarama resident says Auckland Council didn't do enough to prepare for the storm.
Flooding caused Auckland's northern motorway and Tamaki Drive to be closed on Friday, and sent water spilling down streets in Kohimarama and onto properties at Maraetai Beach in east Auckland.
Water came 'flying over the seawall' into homes on Kohimarama Rd, resident Carl Felderhof said.
The council needed to be 'more proactive' in preparing for weather events, he said.
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'They've known about the storm coming for three or four days and could have put some sandbags up.'
'It would have made a huge difference,' Felderhof said.
Auckland Council chief operating officer Dean Kimpton said there were not enough sand bags to protect low-lying areas of Auckland such as Kohimarama and eastern beaches.
'In some instances people choose to use sandbags to mitigate the effects of flooding on their properties, and we encourage this,' Kimpton said.
'While we have a small number of sandbags available upon request, it is not possible for council to employ this management response on a scale which would be effective with respect to coastal driven inundation.'
Kimpton said council contractors and maintenance staff planned and prepared for the weather event, which combined a significant storm with a king tide.
There had also been severe flooding around Big Bay in Manukau Heads.
Water was several metres deep in some areas, flooding roads and properties in the area.
The flooding started about 1.45pm when the king tide came in, one local resident said.
Locals were now redirecting traffic around some of the affected roads, she said.
'It's very wet, very flooded.'
More rain fell in Auckland in the past 24 hours than the last two months combined, according to Niwa.
Since 9am Thursday, 41mm of rain fell in the city – trumping the last two months' combined total of 38mm.
Big 🌊 crashing into Tamaki Dr with high tide about 10 minutes away! Still rising- more 📷 to come. pic.twitter.com/pON0roeA9B
— NIWA Weather (@NiwaWeather) January 4, 2018
Tamaki Drive had also taken a beating, with high tide hitting at 10.38am.
Auckland Transport confirmed Tamaki Drive had been reopened as of 2.10pm.
In east Auckland, the seawall at Maraetai Beach had been breached.
One local said up to 15 houses were on the verge of being flooded.
Randal Brown, who has lived in the area for a decade, said he had never seen waves so high.
'I am going to go down to the wharf soon. It will be hard to see, people would have been hit hard.'
In Half Moon Bay, the boat ramp and loading ramp were so badly damaged they have now been closed until further notice.
The council's head of operational management and maintenance, Agnes McCormack, said contractors had put up temporary fencing to prevent access.
'This location is unsafe for the public to launch their boats, and we are urging Aucklanders to stay away and not use this site,' she said.
'It is important that people stay away from any areas fenced off because of storm damage.'
Harsh winds and rain also caused some 12,000 Auckland homes to wake up with no power on Friday morning.
As of 12pm on Friday, many houses had their power restored, but thousands were still cut off, Vector spokesperson Matthew Britton said.
'As at 11am, the number of storm related faults across the Auckland region was 39, with the number of customers affected likely to be in the thousands.
'The number of faults is up from just 20 earlier at 10:30am, and is despite restoring 10 faults in that same time. Much of the impact more recently has been seen in the Auckland region, including Waiheke, Beachlands, Maraetai areas.'
The company was asking for patience as crews worked to assess conditions to get power restored.
'Vector's storm response is continuing throughout the day. We have recalled crews from leave where possible, called in additional teams, and have cancelled all planned overhead work and reassigned crews to storm response activity.'
People using medical equipment that rely on electricity should let their retailer know and ensure they are prepared for power disruptions. If there is an immediate health threat, they should contact their health provider or call 111, Britton said.
Auckland Harbourmaster Captain Andrew Hayton has said about 20 small yachts or launches have either broken off their moorings or dragged their anchors and come ashore around the region.
'We are working to identify them so we can contact their owners and arrange salvage when the weather dies down,' he said.
Fire communications northern shift manager Megan Ruru said there had been 220 weather-related callouts between 6am and 1pm on Friday.
Just under 90 of those were in Auckland, she said.
Fire services had responded to a further 50 incidents in Waikato, 60 in the Bay of Plenty and around 20 in Northland.
The majority of calls were trees or power lines down on roads, she said. None were life-threatening.
Throughout the Waikato, Auckland and Northland region, 131 weather-related incidents were attended to by fire crews on Thursday night.
Gusts of up to 100 kilometres per hour were recorded on the Auckland Harbour Bridge, according to Metservice.
The bad weather had also closed Auckland Zoo, 'in the interests of keeping our visitors and animals safe'.
Due to the weather and in the interests of keeping our visitors and animals safe we have decided to temporarily close the zoo. As our Bug Lab exhibition is entirely undercover this will remain open all day today. We will keep you in the loop as to when we re-open.
— Auckland Zoo (@aucklandzoo) January 4, 2018
MetService meteorologist Tom Bell said the bad weather in Auckland should begin to ease by early evening on Friday as the storm had its way further down the country.
Meanwhile in the north Aucklanders holidaying at campsites who weathered the overnight winds were packing up and coming home - many with tents worse for wear from the storm.