Watch: Devastation to Auckland's west coast 'off the charts', suburbs still cut-off

Wednesday, 15 February 2023

Drone video shows damage to South Piha after Cyclone Gabrielle battered Auckland.

Work is underway to restore access to west coast Auckland communities which remain isolated following extensive damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.

The worst of the weather has passed for Tāmaki Makaurau and the sun has returned, but the devastation felt by the Piha, Karekare, Waimauku and Muriwai communities, among others, remains acute.

Piha resident Jenene Crossan on Wednesday said on Twitter that the “devastation is off the charts” in the small coastal village, and many houses had been “written off”.

Auckland Transport said its “main priority” on Wednesday was to restore “some form of road access for those Auckland communities which are currently cut off”.

* West Aucklanders evacuate their homes as Cyclone Gabrielle roars

* Homes destroyed as they plunge down hillside in Karekare on Auckland's west coast

Fire and Emergency NZ on Wednesday morning confirmed a body had been recovered at the site of a landslide where a firefighter went missing in Muriwai on Monday night. Firefighter Craig Stevens was critically injured in the incident.

Police and Fire and Emergency on Tuesday determined the danger of further slips in Muriwai was too high and land remained unstable, and an exclusion zone was put in place.

A Piha resident whose husband is unwell says you have an ‘awful feeling in your stomach’ worrying what would happen if there’s another emergency, as the coastal community remains largely cut-off from Auckland.

And a number of Karekare homes collapsed or were damaged as the worst of the severe weather pummelled Auckland on Monday night.

Twenty homes in Piha were evacuated overnight due to land instability, Auckland Emergency Management Deputy Controller Rachel Kelleher said.

Many houses around Piha sustained significant damage, with multiple slips coming down on houses, coastal flooding and rivers bursting their banks.

Drone footage taken in South Piha on Wednesday shows a large slip behind beachfront properties.

One house had been completely demolished in a slip and was lying across Rayner Rd.

Locals were out in force working on the cleanup on Wednesday morning, moving debris off the roads.

Resident David Leeds said it had been difficult to check on friends around the town as cell service was almost impossible to get.

Amber Rhodes and her family escaped from their home in Karekare, on Auckland's West Coast, seconds before floodwater from Cyclone Gabrielle washed the house onto the street.

It’s a very tight-knit community, he said, so people have been using a ‘grapevine’ technique to get messages to friends.

Some locals at the top of the hill had received no information on the damage the cyclone had done to the rest of the country.

Local resident Gabrielle, who did not want her surname used, said she was blessed to be safe, and thankful nobody in the community died.

She was shell-shocked waking up to all the damage. They didn’t have access to power, running water or internet, she said.

“My husband is not well – so what happens if there’s another emergency?”

“You get this awful feeling in your stomach”.

Gabrielle said she was in Christchurch during the first big earthquakes, and it felt like that.

Another local said they were just wandering around not knowing what to do, because there was so much.

Aerial photos of Muriwai show the scale of the slip damage on Wednesday morning.

She was concerned Piha Rd wouldn’t last another big storm.

As of Wednesday morning, 78 roads across Auckland are fully closed, and a further 48 roads have partial closures or lane reductions in place.

This includes Piha Rd, Forest Hill Road in Waiatarua, parts of Scenic Drive, and lane closures on Bethells Rd and Te Henga Rd.

As of 8am, approximately 30,000 homes were without power across the Auckland region.

The bulk of outages were across the north and west, where issues such as blocked roads, caused by fallen trees and slips, are making it difficult for Vector crews to access.

Vector’s outage map showed much of Muriwai, part of Bethell’s Beach and pockets of Piha remain without power on Wednesday morning.

“The significant damage to electricity networks across the North Island, including the Auckland region, will take time to repair and some people, particularly in more rural areas, should expect to be without power for several days.”

A spokesperson said Vector continued to face challenges accessing some areas because of blocked roads, but with the drop in wind strength, it had been able to send up a helicopter to assess the damage in the likes of Piha and Muriwai.

”This will give us a clearer idea of what we are facing and what will be required to restore power, how it can be done and how long it’s likely to take.”