Auckland flooding 'like a monsoon, but on steroids'; streets submerged in 30 minutes
Tuesday, 28 February 2023
An Auckland resident has described the sudden flash flooding caused by torrential rain on Friday as something like a monsoon, “but on steroids”.
Emergency services were forced to find a boat to rescue people from their cars in Auckland, as another deluge hit the supercity on Friday after Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland anniversary floods.
Northland was hit hard, with Mangawhai bearing the brunt of the rain.
MetService said 300mm of rain was recorded over a seven-hour period at a rain radar near Mangawhai.
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Louise Johnston, a resident of Blackridge Rd in Dairy Flat, said her area flooded quickly, within half an hour.
Some of her neighbours were stuck in their cars and homes.
“We’ve lived here 12 years, some have lived here for more than 50 years, and we all haven’t seen anything like it,” Johnston said.
“Within half an hour of the heavy rain, the streets were flooded.
“It was like a monsoon, but on steroids.”
Johnston, who is also a member of the Rodney Local Board, said she immediately worked on getting an update to Auckland Emergency Management.
She said her family was safe because they live on a hill, but those living at the bottom of the street weren’t so lucky.
An evacuation centre was set up at the local community centre and while a family used it for a few hours, they and others soon relocated to friends and family nearby.
“I haven’t seen flooding like that before, the whole road was flooded and it was quite sudden. Fire and Emergency came by and asked if people had boats to help with rescue.
“All the paddocks became streams and the one bridge we have here was below water.
“Water subsided by Saturday morning and most of us were out cleaning and clearing debris.”
Johnston believed the flooding could have been prevented, had debris from the recent bad weather been cleared near drains on the road and in the streams.
“There are a lot of contributing factors, but infrastructure still stuck with debris certainly didn’t help.
“We dealt with this flooding and no-one got hurt, everything can be replaced, but we can’t deal with another.”
According to the Auckland Council, property owners are responsible for maintaining private stormwater assets on their property.
However, catch pits, culverts, manholes and streams are owned and maintained by the council.
Auckland Emergency Management has been contacted for comment.