More torrential rain Wednesday morning brought more flooding to Auckland residents, with many saying they have had enough and want the Council to take accountability. Video / NZ Herald
Residents of a West Auckland suburb believe Auckland Council’s failure to maintain a stream in the area played a large part in this week’s flooding, and they’re begging the council to take action.
When the floodwaters rose in Auckland back in August 2021, many Rānui locals counted themselves lucky to dodge the worst of the damage.
The last five days have told a different story, with residents that escaped the previous flood’s reach finding themselves trapped in their homes and their cars swamped by water.
On Wednesday morning, Momutu Stream overflowed and its contents spilled onto nearby Amanda Reserve and flooded nearby streets.
When the same thing happened on Friday, as Rānui resident Lyall Carter explained, the suburb never expected the water to come as quickly or intensely.
“I had my brother and sister-in-law over, they wanted to see the new fence I’d built since the last flood,” he told the Herald.
“We went out the back door and the water was running under the fence, it was pretty quick.”
The waters continued to rise, Carter emptied his shed and moved his belongings to higher ground on four occasions. His cars were moved from the driveway as it became “a river”.
Looking up, Carter noticed his neighbour trapped in his home - but he couldn’t reach him as the water’s current was too strong.
Lyall Carter moved his cars from the driveway as it became “a river”. Photo / Supplied
“We tossed up jumping on a couple of ropes to go down to him, but if we did we’d have gotten washed down the river and gone.”
Carter and other residents banded together to check on others in the area. Fences were broken down as the water level rose and trapped cars were freed.
“We had to get neighbours off a property that had to be evacuated, then we learned one of the houses was floating and a lady was trapped inside,” he said.
“It was chaos, and it took a long time for emergency services to reach us. It was pretty scary.”
Carter noted many houses which escaped flooding back in 2021 got washed out on Friday, a point made all the more sickening when he considers the community’s requests to the council two years ago.
When the 2021 flood concluded, Carter noted the lack of maintenance done on Momutu Stream, a culvert that snakes down Camphora Pl to the bottom of Don Buck Rd.
It’s a council-operated stream, which for years has been congested with weed growth, wooden pallets and rubbish.
Carter said locals were told by the council the culvert would be cleaned, yet no such undertaking has been received.
“The wife and I walk with our child everyday down the stream, I observed there was still debris from the last flood that hasn’t been touched,” he said.
When the 2021 flood concluded, Carter noted the lack of maintenance done on Momutu Stream, a culvert filled with weed, growth and rubbish. Photo / Supplied
“I’m not an engineer, but if you force a whole lot of water down there, there isn’t a lot of places for it to go.”
According to Carter, the issue “isn’t a few years old”, but has been an ongoing saga for quite a while.
“There’s a level of frustration this has happened again, it’s an ongoing issue where there have been repeated asks to the council.”
In May last year, Phil Twyford - Rānui’s local MP - released a report to the public following the first flood, proving the damage to thousands of homes was made worse due to blocked culverts and creek beds.
Auckland Council’s Shane Henderson, the local councillor for Waitākere, noted the report’s findings and acknowledged there’s been “hard work” with the community to fix the issue.
He said the Waimoko Stream catchment, the main cause of the issue in the region, had been cleaned last year but completely flooded on Friday.
Phil Twyford, Rānui’s local MP, released a report to the public following the 2021 floods, showing council's neglect of care for streams and creek beds. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“When there’s rain, the residents of West Auckland - myself included - get so worried the river bank will flood again,” he said.
“So there’s a mental health issue there with anxiety, so there needs to be confidence in their council to sort the problem and that’s what we’re working on.”
As the weekend progressed, the people of Rānui banded together to help each other clean up, according to Carter, who called the neighbourhood efforts “amazing to witness”.
However, the West Auckland local believes the community needs to see a sense of “calm” leadership from Auckland Council, resulting in practical action for his neighbourhood.
Carter said his family is proud to live in Rānui, with its strong community spirit.
“You hear stories from people who have been here a long time and their repeated asks [for action],” said Carter.
“I agree this flood was unprecedented, it was history-making rainfall. But in our particular area, a lot of the damage could have been avoided if action had been taken and the community was listened to.”
When approached about the stream’s maintenance, Healthy Waters stated they do not routinely clear streams unless there is a specific issue identified.
“It’s important to understand that streams typically reach channel capacity during periods of relatively moderate rainfall, which might typically occur every six to 24 months,” said Nick Vigar, Head of Planning.
“In an extreme rainfall event, such as we saw on Friday, we would expect the stream to spill over onto its banks.
“In this instance, the geography of the floodplain has the biggest influence on the severity of flooding, rather than debris in the channel itself.”
Vigar said due to the stream’s location, many properties would be expected to flood in a one-in-100-year extreme rainfall event - such as the one on Friday.
