Auckland floods: Homeowners abandon properties in western suburbs and fear the next weather forecast

A West Auckland family who just shifted back into their flood-damaged home a week ago is facing fresh heartache after a swollen nearby stream poured through their property again yesterday.

Some exasperated homeowners have told the Herald they are ready to abandon their neighbourhoods, while others say their backyard has become a “holding tank for stormwater”.

Birdwood Rd resident Alex Kwak is infuriated by what he believed were council delays in cleaning rubbish from Swanson Stream that runs next to his property.

After the Auckland Anniversary floods the house was yellow-stickered and the fencing around the stream was destroyed by the raging water.

“After four months we have only just moved back a week ago and it happened again. Even now the house is not habitable but we came to check our property,” Kwak said.

“We lost all our furniture, plastering and insulation below the ground needs to be redone too. We just keep waiting for the council to take action but we get no response. They told us they will clean the stream but they keep delaying it.”

Kwak said the repeated inundation had caused him and his family a lot of anxiety.

“[As] soon as the rain comes or the forecast for heavy rain I am like ‘Ah not again’.”

Alex Kwak shows the flooding on his property. Photo / Jason Oxenham

The family were forced out of their home of more than 10 years for eight months after a flood in August 2021, Kwak said.

“This time the water level of Swanson Stream was up to the garden line. We were fully prepared to leave the house,” he told the Herald.

“Myself and a few neighbours had to take matters into our own hands, grab a shovel and clear the drains.”

Kwak said the land around the stream once had more soil and trees which helped hold back the water but he speculated a string of new townhouses in the area has put pressure on the drainage system.

“There used to be soil and trees which helped absorb water,” he said.

“We have been living here for 10 years. It was never an issue before until new houses came up.”

Rupinder Banger at his Candia Rd property in Swanson, which he had to abandon after the Auckland Anniversary floods. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Steve Davis who rents a house on the neighbouring street, Waimoko Glen, told the Herald he was moving out.

“I am feeling like get the hell out of here. Yesterday, the water was halfway up to the shed. I am moving out now. It is a lovely street but it feels like we are on an island here. All of my neighbours are affected since the Auckland Anniversary floods in January. They are all yellow-stickered.

“But what can you do about it? there is nothing we can do.

“It is taking a toll on all house owners.”

Davis said the house next door was still being repaired after January’s weather event and yesterday’s deluge threatened the creek to enter their property again.

“Three days before the January floods he had just moved in his stuff. Wasn’t even in when the water came in and his house was yellow-stickered.”

Ranui resident Tracey Pilgrim told the Herald that with every heavy downpour that hits Auckland, she was losing a bit more of her “sanity”.

Yesterday’s rainfall marked the fifth time her Urlich Dr home had been flooded since she bought it in 2019.

When the first major floods hit the home that sits close to the Waiomoko Stream in August 2021, Pilgrim had to rescue her elderly mum.

Pilgrim had earlier built a small home for her mum on their property. But with the waters rising so fast, Pilgrim’s mum was floating in her chair by the time they reached her.

Rosina Simes clears out debris from the culvert under her Candia Rd driveway in Swanson. Photo / Jason Oxenham

With the flooding damaging their entire property, their insurer paid them out. But all the money went to the bank to pay down their mortgage.

With nothing else to do, Pilgrim and her husband rolled up their sleeves and used their own money to renovate bit by bit, living in a cabin on site for much of the time.

They had managed to renovate one bedroom and move back in - although plenty of work still needed doing - when January’s floods hit them and destroyed everything even worse than before.

Gentle Waiomoko Stream ran about 130m wide on January 27. Now Pilgrim and her family are in limbo.

They’re unable to live in the home, cannot get a loan to renovate, can’t insure and cannot sell. They don’t know what to do and are still in shock at how their world’s turned upside-down so fast.

“Within the space of a few hours, you go from being that person who goes to work every day and pays their mortgage to have nothing,” she said.

Wayne and Rosina Simes on their Candia Rd driveway in Swanson. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Couple Wayne and Rosina Simes have been living in their Candia Rd house for 26 years.

“I am sick of hearing responses from the council. I need to know what they are going to do about it,” Wayne told the Herald.

“Floods are just becoming a normal thing. Our backyard is like a holding tank for stormwater.”

Simes said he had never experienced such extreme weather events before.

“Yesterday, we had water up to waist high on our driveway. The pipe runs below the driveway, we have new 250 houses built up the road and the drain can’t cope so water is running through the neighbour’s house straight up to our place.

“We have had to clean out rubbish from the street up there clogging the drains,” Rosina said.

In January, the water was head-height, and the pair had to abandon their home with the help of a “kind firefighter” who had a kayak, they said.

“I am looking at prices of a dinghy, actually, because that’s the only way you can go out if you need medicines. It’s becoming normal now.”

The couple said the repeated flooding has left them wondering how they could ever sell their home.

“Who is going to buy our house? Nobody’s going to buy a flooded house. Even insurers will say they won’t insure houses that flood.”

Wayne’s neighbour, Rupinder Banger, told the Herald of his heartbreak seeing what was supposed to be a “family home for the kids” get destroyed by overwhelmed streams and drains again.

“My wife came home to have a look - we are not in the house since the January floods - but when she came she saw the property was flooding again.

“It is heartbreaking. We sold our previous home to buy this one. It was supposed to be a family home with more space for kids to play around.”

Banger said the area used to be a rural plain years ago before it was urbanised.

Banger said when he bought the house the LIM report mentioned the property was prone to flood.

“But it said the risk was one in a hundred years so it was acceptable. This year it happened every month.

“It is not worth living here. It is not even about losing house or belongings, it is about life. Our safety is at risk.”

Banger said the central government should also take immediate action for flood-damaged properties.

“From our research the way the house is built and where it is located there is no engineering solution to fix the problem.

“Properties like this shouldn’t have been here in the first place. It is traumatising. A lot of people are facing financial stress because of repeated flooding.

“It’s not safe to live in. We definitely will not buy any property close to water or floodplain again.”