Trushar Maisuria, an NZ homeowner arrives to survey the damage to his Don Buck Road home. Video / Dean Purcell
Farmers around Auckland are assessing damage after last night’s deadly downpour amid reports hundreds of tonnes of fresh produce were lost.
The flood has also raised questions about Auckland’s stormwater infrastructure, the maintenance of culverts, and possible impacts to fresh produce prices.
Federated Farmers Auckland president Alan Cole said he’dnever seen rain as heavy as last night’s and some local dairy farms were flooded in flat or low-lying areas, and had fences wrecked and trees uprooted.
Generally speaking, dairy farmers weren’t too badly affected, Cole said, but a friend of his who grows onions had reported losing about 200 tonnes of produce in the downpour.
Cole also understood a slip on or near Pukekohe’s Blake Rd had taken out a power pole and affected 22 customers.
Cole said he was keeping the Ministry for Primary Industries informed as much as he could.
Speaking on Saturday afternoon, he said it didn’t seem dairy and other livestock farmers needed emergency assistance but people were mindful of more heavy rain possible tomorrow.
Cole said in some cases stormwater infrastructure struggled to handle the deluge, and that was partly understandable given the downpour’s extreme scale.
Flooding by Pukekohe Park raceway. Photo / Supplied.
But Cole said an onion grower in the Pukekohe district had complained even before the deluge about culverts not being properly maintained by transport and local government agencies.
The region had 249mm of rain in 24 hours, smashing the previous high of 161.8mm recorded more than three decades ago.
A Herald reader said onions and other produce in Pukekohe were washed off onto the road in “heartbreaking” scenes for market gardeners.
A local growers’ representative has been contacted for comment.
Flooding at Auckland Airport on Friday. Photo / Pamela Mills, Twitter
North of Auckland, some areas dodged the heaviest downpours but slips were still widespread, farmer and former Kaipara mayor Dr Jason Smith said.
“Where you get these steep slopes, it’s been very dramatic.”
Major slips slightly north of Puhoi caused the closure of State Highway 1 between Grand Drive in Orewa and Woodcocks Rd in Warkworth.
Waka Kotahi NZTA said the highway would stay closed throughout Saturday and probably Sunday too.
Smith said the deluge would probably impact fresh produce prices.
‘It’s absolutely disrupted the normal market.”
Smith said although Kaipara growers seemed not too badly affected, the floods impacted high quality horticultural land south of Auckland.
“In the lower parts of Northland we’ve seen nowhere near the amount of rain that Auckland has in the last 24 hours.”
Smith was in Kaikohe on Friday where he saw a downpour like a “biblical rain event” but that storm passed quickly and headed south.
Temporary accommodation people were using since their house was damaged in earlier floods was yesterday washed down the drive in Henderson, West Auckland. Photo / Elizabeth Binning
“As it got further down country it gathered force and slowed down and hovered over Auckland ... It went through very much as a band that just smashed Auckland.
“Everyone’s worried about Auckland. People have lost their lives. People didn’t come home last night, that’s shocking.”
Sweet corn, watermelon, and lettuce were impacted even before the January 27 flood.
Flooding was still visible in downtown Auckland on Saturday afternoon near the old railway station. Photo / NZME
Geography professor James Renwick said Auckland needed bigger drains, larger stormwater pipes and stormwater systems capable of handling extreme weather events.
“The country’s stormwater drain system was designed for the climate we used to have – 50 or more years ago,” he wrote in The Conversation today.
