Andreas Lechtenborger shows the effects of wild weather on his home in Titirangi beach settlement. Video / Brett Phibbs
Emergency services are at the scene of a dam that has collapsed on a farm, while torrential rain has brought down more slips, a sinkhole and worsened a washout on a key West Auckland road.
Oratia resident Paul Mitchell said he called the fire service this morning because the 60-year-old dam on his property appeared to be “crumbling” after days of heavy rainfall.
Police, Fire and Emergency NZ and Urban Search and Rescue are on site, where Mitchell said after last night’s rain water was spilling over the dam.
He did not believe there were houses downstream but was concerned about the dam breaking.
”I just hope it doesn’t go,” he said. “There’s a lot of water … and I don’t know what’s downstream.”
He said emergency services were looking at releasing the water slowly to prevent a deluge.
The dam is at risk of collapse. Photo / Isaac Davison
Waitākere Ranges local board chairman Greg Presland said a local living close to the site of a sinkhole which opened up in Swanson, West Auckland, last night revealed the hole was about 1m x 1m wide.
“With [a] wastewater pipe in it that seems to have disconnected and washed away the soil under the tarmac.”
The local relayed it was “not huge” compared to other slips there and the three red-stickered houses in the area.
“It’s an area with some pretty bad luck,” the local said.
A sinkhole has developed on Scenic Drive in West Auckland's Swanson following the wild weather. Photo: RNZ / Mohammad Alafeshat
Waitākere councillor Shane Henderson said the sinkhole was causing some “huge detours and some delays”.
”That’s not affecting the Huia township at the moment, so they’re still fine, Huia Rd is still okay to pass through.
“At the same time, the message there is if you can stay home then do so, unless you’re accessing emergency services because we don’t want traffic through those detours which could stop emergency services.”
A big slip has also occured at the Swanson end of Scenic Drive, with large trees and power poles strewn across the road.
Auckland Emergency Management said this morning there had been four slips on the road, which runs between Swanson and Titirangi.
Residents on the road said some of the slips were impassable by road or foot.
There is no indication yet on when the road will be cleared.
Scenic Drive is closed near Swanson following a large slip. Photo / Isaac Davison
Staff at Alfred’s Huia Store said residents in Huia had earlier this morning been blocked with road closures due to slips further closer to the city in places like Titirangi.
A staff member said she understood one lane had been reopened allowing residents to return to Huia, however, authorities were discouraging residents from leaving the area if not necessary.
She said five houses in Huia near the beach had been evacuated in Friday’s floods but this morning’s rainfall had not been as bad.
”There’s been a couple of people who have come into the store and their bottom rooms have been reflooded.”
But overall, the morning had been “alright”.
A large slip has come down on Scenic Drive. Photo / Isaac Davison
The store hadn’t been in danger today but it had taken quick teamwork from the staff to prevent it from being flooded on Friday when they managed to prevent knee-high floodwaters getting in.
Presland said Titirangi had been badly “beaten up” by the storm and is “surrounded by carnage”.
The chairman, who lives in the area, said there had been a lot of roadblocks and slips, with some residents being without vehicle access, water or power since Friday.
“Wood Bay Rd is similar, they had cleared up the slip but it’s just recently slipped again.”
He told the Herald a few homes have already been red-stickered and the community is doing what it can to support each other.
“Main concerns are power, and water, and certainly the people [that are] isolated, they’ve got multiple issues that we’re trying to help them with.
“In Titirangi, much of it’s affected, to a greater or lesser extent.”
Resident Simon Kitson said large banks had collapsed onto roads, bringing trees along with them.
“The section in between Titirangi roundabout and Woodlands Park Road is really, really badly affected.”
Kitson said they would not let pedestrians along that stretch this morning.
Their main issue yesterday, he told the Herald, had been 12 hours without power after a tree fell onto lines nearby.
“If there has been one positive in this whole situation, it is how people have rallied around and helped each other.”
Niwa reported this morning that, in 24 hours, 71mm of rain had fallen at its Western Springs climate station in Auckland. Much of the rain fell in only a few hours including 25.2mm in one hour, 44.2 mm in two hours and 58.6mm in three hours.
State Highway 1 is closed between Brynderwyn and Waipu following slips on the southern side of the Brynderwyn Hills, and State Highway 16 is closed between Waimauku and Helensville.
