Auckland floods: Titirangi family’s red-stickered home hangs above massive slip, city braces for more torrential rain

Tears well in Sylvia Spann’s eyes as she surveys the damage to her family’s red-stickered home which now hangs precariously over the edge of a massive slip.

“It’s a huge loss,” she tells the Herald. “You think you’re living in paradise and waiting to retire and then a disaster hits you. What can you do?”

Spann purchased the Ngaio Rd house, which is nestled in lush Titirangi bush, with her husband Tom Holthuis in 2000.

The west Auckland property is among hundreds badly impacted by Friday’s record-breaking rainfall, with nearly 500 either red or yellowed-stickered by Auckland Council inspectors.

Thousands of homeowners are bracing for further torrential downpours this morning that are likely to trigger more devastating flooding and slips.

A MetService red rain warning issued for Auckland north of Ōrewa is in force until 9am this morning, while an orange warning for elsewhere in the city lapses at 10am.

Residents are being urged to keep up to date with the latest forecasts, to avoid travel unless absolutely necessary, and to head to higher ground if they see rising flood waters.

On Friday night, Spann’s son Colin was at home when he heard the land begin to give way during intense rain about 8pm.

“I was just sitting inside and looking out the back door when I saw three trees fall down and said, ‘S***, what’s going on?’,” Colin said.

“Then a big tree collapsed. Once the big tree went down there was like a tree avalanche. Then it was an avalanche of mud and water.”

Members of Urban Search and Rescue worked with structural engineers to assess red-stickered homes in Titirangi after the devastating floods that hit Auckland last Friday. Photo / Dean Purcell

Colin text his parents who rushed home to survey the damage. Spann had been working in the city. The hellish, rain-drenched commute took 4½ hours. She finally arrived home about 10pm, but had to wait until daybreak to assess the destruction.

Morning light revealed a large chunk of the family’s backyard had slipped into the gully below, sending tonnes of sodden soil and foliage cascading on a current of water and mud.

The property’s rear deck is now suspended above the abyss. Two neighbouring properties have also suffered damage, with large cracks opening up in the earth and significant subsidence causing structural damage.

Council inspectors issued red stickers to all three homes on Monday, meaning they are considered uninhabitable and unsafe.

Tom Holthuis and Sylvia Spann with their sons Colin and Tobias outside the family's red-stickered home in Titirangi. Photo / Dean Purcell

An Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team visited the three properties yesterday to assess whether there had been further land movement since an inspection the previous day.

The USAR teams have been deployed across Auckland since Friday’s devastating storm unleashed an unprecedented amount of rainfall and flash flooding, claiming four lives and triggering a civil defence emergency.

On Monday alone they carried out 369 “rapid danger assessments”. These resulted in 161 buildings being deemed green, or habitable. A further 57 buildings were deemed yellow, or in need of further assessment. And 147 buildings were assessed as red, meaning they are considered uninhabitable, but requiring further assessment from council inspectors.

Geotechnical specialist Dr Jan Kupec said his team used a drone to map hard-to-reach properties in precise detail. The drone footage allowed specialists to confirm if the ground had shifted and whether properties were at imminent risk of collapse.

Members of FENZ Urban Search and Rescue team working with structural engineers to assess the stability of damaged west Auckland homes. Photo / Dean Purcell

“It’s got worse,” Kupec said after reviewing images of one of the Ngaio Rd properties.

“There’s cracking at the front and the majority of the backyard has gone. The land is moving away and it’s dragging the house with it.” USAR work is not for the faint-hearted. As Kupec surveyed the damage, he said: “We are standing here on an active slip.”

He noted “structural distress” on one of the buildings and said he could see up to two metres down a 50mm crack that had opened up in the ground.

While signs of additional movement in the land were worrying, the real concern was the forecast heavy rain due to lash Auckland overnight until 10am today, which would further saturate water-logged soil, increasing the risk of slope instability, Kupec said.

“That can go and really start to accelerate quickly. It could be a full out failure.”

Moments before the Herald arrived, a police officer visited Spann’s property and gave the family, who were collecting personal belongings, 10 minutes to get out. They grabbed clothing, personal essentials and the beloved pet cat.

Spann is German and Holthuis is Dutch. They have no family in New Zealand and were staying last night in a hotel.

Spann said she worried about the fate of her home and was unsure whether it could be saved.

“I can’t say because we have to wait on the engineer to come and then we have to see what’s happening.

“I think the cost to repair everything will be enormous.

“It hit me yesterday - the emotion. Now it’s just a waiting game.”

An Urban Search and Rescue team member assesses a large slip that has blocked Woodbay Rd in Titirangi. Photo / Dean Purcell

After surveying the three Ngaio Rd properties, the USAR team head to a large slip that has closed nearby Woodbay Rd.

A massive torrent of sodden earth and native trees has careered down a steep bank, blocking the narrow road in both directions.

Above the slip, a house and skew-whiff trampoline sit precariously on the edge of a sheer 40m cliff. The landslide, which is contaminated with raw sewage, flanks a large yellow-stickered home, which has suffered some external damage.

Above this house stands a towering kauri tree. The slip has exposed the tree’s roots and there are fears it could tumble on to the house during more heavy rain.

USAR personnel try to encourage the man to leave for his own safety but he appears determined to stay put.

USAR task force leader Aaron Waterreus said his staff try to make people see reason, but the search and rescue specialists were not an enforcement agency and could not compel people to leave their homes.

“You often encounter people who don’t really understand what’s going on or why they’ve been asked to leave. It can be met with disbelief.

“But every time you ask someone to leave it’s for good reason. It’s predominantly to look after their safety.

“A house can be rebuilt, but if someone’s in a house when it falls down, it’s highly likely they’re going to come to some form of harm.”

Waterreus said some people were highly emotional and agitated about the future of their home. Staff tried to respect people but sometimes needed to “pull back” from aggressive situations.

Asked about the scale of this disaster, he said it was “quite unprecedented”.

“You’ve got a large number of heavily affected pockets across Auckland. It’s a bit of a logistical challenge getting people to those pockets and getting them assessed.”