Late night flash flood hits West Auckland homes

By MARTIN JOHNSTON

Twenty homes were evacuated in West Auckland after a stream at the eastern foot of the Waitakere Ranges suddenly flooded.

Water flowed more than a metre-deep through houses and garages on Henderson Valley Rd near Opanuku Stream about midnight on Saturday, after a sudden thunderstorm followed steady all-day rain.

The torrent soaked homes, ruined appliances, flattened fences and forced families to flee.

Waitakere City Council spokesman Dai Bindoff said yesterday that 40 houses on Henderson Valley Rd were affected.

"They were not all necessarily flooded, but might have been cut off by the stream running past their front door."

Twenty households were evacuated. Families from 18 homes moved to stay with relatives or friends and two others went to the council's civil defence headquarters.

Many people spent yesterday trying to dry out vehicles and furnishings and sweeping out mud dumped by the flood.

Eight-year-old Andrew Campbell looked sadly at an up-ended TV set in his family's rented home.

It had been knocked off its stand as 1.2m of water flowed through the house, and lay screen down in the 3cm of water and mud remaining by lunchtime yesterday.

Andrew's parents, Shane and Judy Campbell, and the five other members of their household, spent the night with friends after police advised them to leave, but they returned yesterday morning.

Before the flood, when most of them had been out, Mr Campbell phoned home to check on the water.

"It was ankle-deep, but by the time I got home it was at chest height outside."

The Campbells have household contents insurance and rent their house from the city council. They could not start cleaning up yesterday, Mr Campbell said, since they were waiting for a council official to view the damage first.

"It's quite a health risk downstairs, I think, but upstairs is fine."

About 100m up the road, Ian Devereux said it was the worst flood to hit the area in the 30 years he had lived there.

His house had been lifted and a garage built underneath some years ago because of the regular flooding.

He said the weekend's flood rose fast, covering the road and about 150m of land on either side, but it subsided within hours after the rain eased.

The swift-flowing water punched holes in the upstream and downstream sides of his garage.

The MetService yesterday issued a special weather bulletin for Northland and the Bay of Plenty overnight and today.

Up to 100mm of rain is likely in these areas during this time.

People in Northland and eastern Bay of Plenty, east of Opotiki, were advised to be on the alert for rapidly rising rivers and creeks, and warned about potentially hazardous driving conditions.

WET, WET, WET

After steady rain on Saturday, localised downpours hit Auckland about midnight because of high humidity and thunderstorms on the tail of a front, says MetService.

From 11pm to midnight, 30mm of rain fell at Auckland Airport.

Forecaster Andy Downs said 30mm in one hour is "pretty heavy".