Ulrich Esplanade is dry for now.
Water was gently flowing through a section of the Swanson Stream that runs along the area - but the tangled debris and fallen branches were a reminder of what happened there on January 27.
Locals said the stream became a raging river when it burst its banks and rushed into several nearby properties, leaving residents fearing for their lives.
Joe Young was forced to flee his home when the water broke through his back fence.
“When we left with the fire brigade it [water] at our waist, at a nominal level, but the torrent of debris on top of that probably made another 150mm above waist high.”
Council staff came over to his property to white sticker it, he said.
Young said while the anniversary floods were of a biblical proportion, the destruction would have been less intense had council ensured the stream behind his house was clear.
“The underlying issue in my mind is clean out the streams, they are now city drains.
“As nice as they are with the bush, they are now city drains with all the intensification that pours into them - just clean out the drains like you’re meant to.”
Young has lived at the property for more than a decade and said it was rare to see anyone clearing the stream.
“There’s been the occasional crew come down very sporadically, like you wouldn’t see them at all.”
Council carried out minor felling every now and again, he said.
Healthy Waters leads Auckland Council’s stormwater management and its head of sustainable outcomes Tom Mansell said that section of Swanson Stream had had regular maintenance.
Urlich Reserve was currently on the council’s priority list, he said.
The stream was cleared late last year, in February and in March, Mansell said.
“We do it more frequently than we do other streams.”
Mansell said the water infrastructure could never have coped with the unprecedented amount of rainfall.
“Our culverts, our pipes, are designed for 10 year events, so this event was exceeding all our design capacity.”
Young was fortunate Swanson Stream did not run through his property.
If it did, Mansell said, it would be his responsibility.
“To put perspective we cannot take out debris on all naturally lying streams, it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain streams.”
Roger Evans, a retired geotechnical engineer, until two years ago owned a home with a section of Swanson Stream flowing through it.
Evans said it was unrealistic to expect property owners to maintain them if they ran through private land.
In fact, he believed it was a recipe for disaster.
Mansell said the system could change in the future.
But that was no consolation for Young and his wife.
Their home has been white stickered meaning they could technically stay but the couple was on edge.
“It’s a bit of a knife-edge scenario.”
After the anniversary weekend, he said, he packed his house completely and left home twice when it rained.
The council said the last round of maintenance around the Youngs’ house was just before the anniversary weekend floods. It said it had spent $21,000 clearing the Ulrich Reserve since and also removed trees in early February before Cyclone Gabrielle.
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