Homes evacuated as heavy rain causes dam to burst

Three downpours in an hour turned Liddesdale Place into a canal. Picture / Brett Phibbs

Residents of four Papakura homes stayed the night with family and friends yesterday after thousands of litres of water and mud swept down from a ruptured hillside dam into their houses.

The dam was meant to trap silt runoff from earthworks for a housing subdivision in the Red Hill area.

But it overflowed and burst after three heavy showers within an hour.

"It vented out water and clay through the fences of the properties a few metres below," said Papakura District Council spokesman Mark Baker.

He said the resulting flow reached about 1.5m above the floors of some of the nearly new homes in Yarrow Lane.

Fire Service communications shift manager Megan Ruru said a resident called at 1pm to say their house was being flooded.

Firefighters helped residents of seven houses to get out through flooded parts of Yarrow Lane and nearby Kelso Court.

Mr Baker said residents of four homes opted to stay last night with family and friends and the cleanup would resume today.

The street's stormwater system had drained the surface flooding.

He said the 20mm of rain over Papakura also caused temporary flooding at the Massey Park Aquatic Centre and in East St.

A contractor at the Crestview subdivision was repairing the 1.5m-high walls of the silt dam.

The area on the northern face of Red Hill is being assessed by council engineers, the Auckland Regional Council and civil defence managers.

The MetService said the short bursts of heavy rain were due to a front passing over the North Island.

Showers would clear today and the North Island would be mostly fine until Sunday.