A family forced out of their home of more than 30 years are bracing themselves for another hit as high winds and rain batters the North Island.
Douglas Miller can do nothing but wait for Cyclone Gabrielle to loosen its grip as their vulnerable house teeters on the edge of a 30m cliff-face in West Auckland.
He, his wife Denise, their daughter Mavis and her partner Chris had no choice but to abandon the home after high winds and rain hit Auckland on January 27.
Douglas Miller's daughter filmed a tree falling away from their home on Friday January 27 when wild weather hit Auckland. (Source: 1News)
Douglas told 1News: "I don't know what to think or feel, it's just got to a stage where we just have to see what happens.
"I feel so helpless. I'm the sort of person when something is broken, I can fix it, or I'd give it my best shot and that's the worst, knowing I can't do anything. It's totally out of my hands.
"The last time it happened, that was terrifying. This, on top of it, we could lose the house. It's hard to describe without getting emotional, I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
"It's a time of great anxiety for my wife and I and my daughter. We're displaced out of our house, it's not the easiest."
Douglas remembers the day 30 years ago his daughter Mavis was born and they spent the first day in the new home.
Now, the council has red-stickered the property as land beneath the home in Royal Heights, Massey, threatens to fall away.
The family were among the hundreds who were forced to find alternative accommodation when the unprecedented weather event caused severe flooding and slips.
For the past year, the family had been preparing their home for their other daughter Kylie's wedding on February 3.
He said: "We were really going all out to tidy up, painting."
Douglas says he'd noticed the weather taking a turn earlier that day and got outside to dig trenches and clear the drains.
The home has previously had issues when water would flow down which they had notified the council about multiple times but had seen no recourse.
He said: "We'd been there more than 30 years, so I wasn't overly concerned because there wasn't water rushing down into the house, there was a lot of water but it was bubbling down and then going off to the road.
"Then it started happening, Kylie ran in and said 'Dad, you have to come and see this', the rest is history. It was frightening."
Their house "seems to be alright" but its placement so close to the cliff-edge means it's unsafe for the family to be in the home.
Douglas said: "The council came and red-stickered the house so we had to move out so if there was any real structural damage inside, I'm not aware of it. I can only look from the outside."
He's been in touch with insurance assessors who have been in to take photos but with the current weather situation, it's likely they won't know what's happening for some time.
After the family evacuated the home to a safer area, he was shocked to catch potential thieves casing his home on remotely-accessed footage from security cameras around the home.
He said: "We went up to my sister-in-law's place and it was about midnight and I saw people loitering, cars on the driveway, it looked like they were walking around trying to get in."
"I asked my wife to activate the sirens and I was off. I jumped in the car from Kumeu.
"When I was driving down, I rang my nephew who lives just across from Massey. When we got there, there was no one there, and we went around the property with torches and looked around."
He went to lock the door when they were leaving but was unable.
With his nephew keeping an eye on things, he went back the next morning to realise it had been jemmied.
He said: "If we hadn't activated the alarm, who knows what could have gone.
"It's unbelievable that there are people who would do a thing like that, talk about being kicked when you're down, it's terrible."
Douglas says the thought had crossed his mind the land could fall away one day, but with neighbours building eight metres over the cliff edge, was falsely reassured it was as precarious as it's proven to be.
He said: "Over the years, you've seen it happen to other places, it does cross your mind but you think it's never going to happen to you."
"They started building next door and that house went eight metres over the cliff so you think 'we're good as gold'."
The family now sit, hoping for the best, as they wait to see just how bad the wrath of Cyclone Gabrielle turns out to be.
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