“We have tenants upstairs, they only moved in two and a half weeks before this all happened. One of them has asthma and respiratory issues, and her doctor said there’s no way you can live there, you need to move out now.”
The generator, which is about half the size of a container, supplies temporary power to 32 homes on Paturoa Rd.
Erica Clarke beside the generator which is noisy and smelly. Photo / RNZ / Leonard Powell
The noise is comparable to opening a chiller in a hospitality kitchen, the constant humming drone was audible as soon as RNZ rounded the corner 100m from Clarke’s home.
It was worse before a noise barrier was finally installed around the outside of the generator, but that only came after Clarke pleaded with Vector for weeks.
“We’ve had to really try and band together to get things happening. It takes a lot of energy, especially when we’re all working, but if we hadn’t been constantly trying to make noise to these people, then honestly nothing would have happened, and I still would have no communication about how long the generator was going to be there for.”
Three hundred metres up the hill, Simon Scott was in a different predicament. The anniversary weekend flood and the ensuing heavy rain a few days later uprooted an enormous 30m kauri tree, the remnants of which were now covering the drain on the opposite side of the road from his place.
Simon Scott sits on the kauri tree he wants removed. Photo / RNZ / Leonard Powell
“The council came along, cut up the tree, but they never took it away when they had all the trucks there. They left it on the side of the road and it’s waiting for the iwi to pick it up.
“So it was okay, but we weren’t happy with where they left it because it’s on the downside of the slip.
“Every time it rains, more mud comes off and it dams up against the tree trunks because they’re in the gutter, and then it washes across the road. We get all the stormwater from both sides of the road, and then it comes down our driveway.”
Scott said there had been multiple occasions where the council said they would come back, but they had not.
Peter Mckay beneath the slip that has left his house precariously placed. Photo / RNZ / Leonard Powell
Down the lower end of Paturoa Rd, Peter Mckay’s house seemed to be hanging on for its life above an enormous slip which had yet to be cleared.
Twenty metres up from that slip the road had completely fallen into the Manukau Harbour. There were no clear timelines of when the slip or road would be repaired.
Mckay’s house was yellow stickered, but he feared it could go red.
“Every time it rains my wife packs her bags, because we’ve already been evacuated before and have moved between our cousins’ places.
“We’re in a place which geotechs say is at risk of further trouble unless we remediate. So we’re not just worried about it, we’ve got experts who tell us that if we don’t get anything done, it’ll keep sliding.”
Mckay said the slip was on Auckland Transport land, which meant he was unable to do any remediating himself.
“It just feels like West Auckland, especially Titirangi, is just a forgotten part of Auckland. We’re obviously very badly impacted here, but there’s a lot of slips out there that are unattended. Just throw up some road cones and then go and deal with another part of Auckland. That’s what it feels like.”
For Clarke, it had been a long six weeks sleeping on the couch in her lounge, which is the furthest room from the noisy generator.
“Back when we were Waitākere City Council, we had a strong leader, we had someone in charge who cared about West Auckland, and knew our history. It was a smaller council so they would be able to sort things out.
A section of badly damaged road. Photo / RNZ / Leonard Powell
“Whereas here, it’s just this constant bureaucracy with nobody communicating with each other and nothing gets done. I feel if this had happened in Epsom, Ponsonby, Remuera, It would have been sorted.”
Residents were hopeful Vector would fix the lines and remove the generator by the end of the week.
