A Waiwera local says they made a human chain to help rescue several schoolchildren who had been trapped by rising flood waters in their bus on Friday.
Some in the North Auckland community fear this latest incident is a result of a “major slip” blocking a river upstream from Waiwera.
Alexis, who lives up the hill from where the bus was caught out, said she saw the bus had stopped in the floodwaters and could see lights flickering on top of it.
“I put the baby in the front pack and went down and helped, as I assume anyone else would have.”
She told the Herald that five children had been inside the bus, including one 5-year-old, and, at its peak, the water was about hip height.
“They were all just like, ‘I just want mum’.”
While there was a river between Alexis and the children, she said she formed a chain with the bus driver and they pulled the kids across the river.
“Then brought them up here and gave them afternoon tea and just waited for their parents to be able to come and get them.”
Alexis said although the road has flooded before it had never been so bad and it happened “all within an hour”.
“That was frightening that part of it.”
She told the Herald that ever since the end of January, massive slips have backed up the river, which is why she believes it flooded so quickly that day.
Rodney Local Board member Ivan Wagstaff told the Herald the slip had essentially created a dam, putting everything upstream “at risk”.
“Good neighbours jumped in and helped, but [it was] an extremely stressful time for parents when they see buses on the other side of flooding or they can’t see their children, can’t get hold of them because there’s no phone coverage in these valleys anymore because a lot of the phone networks are down.”
Wagstaff said due to the blockage even a minor amount of rain is seeing homes flooded multiple times, and roads which were previously unaffected be hit.
Wainui School principal Gillian Bray said it was a “freak” and “massive” downpour that people initially treated like previous downpours the area had experienced.
“The buses wanted to go and all the parents, and so as per usual, Friday afternoon it was just using the bus system as per usual. I don’t think anybody really knew that it was going to be such a downpour.”
She said the bus company and the Ministry of Education were in contact with her right through the situation.
“Safety is paramount, and at the moment we’re working with GoBus and the Ministry to assess a) the state of the roads and just the processes of the bus being stranded on a country road with a freak storm.”
Parts of Auckland, Northland and Coromandel saw more than 100mm of rain falling in less than six hours on Friday night - the third time in a month that the regions have been impacted by severe weather, leaving residents feeling anxious.
About 20 students and their parents have been stranded at a school in Northland overnight as heavy rain caused flooding.
Kaiwaka School principal Sharlene McCormick told the Herald over the weekend they were all safe but it was “horrific and terrifying” for the community to go through the weather event again.
Wagstaff said at this stage, from what he’s learnt from the council, is that an aerial assessment has been done, but a response to the destruction has not occurred yet.
“There needs to be an immediate assessment of the risk profile for this community, we can’t have people sitting in their houses worried about whether the river is going to come up.
“It’s just a really worrying time for everyone.”
Even last night, he told the Herald, there had been flooding on roads that had not been flooded before.
Upper Waiwera Rd and Weranui Rd were being impacted, he said.
Auckland Emergency Management, Auckland Council and Wainui School have been approached for comment on the situation.
The community itself, he relayed, had told him the answer was to clear the immediate slip blocking the river.
“As soon as we can get heavy equipment in there to clear the stream, we can somewhat reduce the risk.
“They haven’t been cleared for many years, they’ve silted up, and then in the first flood, you know, we got the topsoil going in and the next flood, it keeps getting higher and higher.”