One year on from the Auckland Anniversary weekend floods, some residents hit by the devastation say the council has left them living in limbo.
On January 27, 2023, torrential rain in the upper North Island caused widespread flooding, most prominently in West Auckland and on the North Shore.
Four people lost their lives and thousands abandoned their homes, resulting in around $2 billion worth of insurance claims.
Combined with weather events that followed shortly after, most especially Cyclone Gabrielle, over 2000 sites in the Auckland region needed repairs.
Resident Joe Young brought 1News to his abandoned and nearly unrecognisable West Auckland home.
Like other homeowners on his street, he has now waited a year for Auckland Council to decide on the next steps.
"We're pretty f***ed off with the council," he said. "Y
Over 2000 property owners affected by the floods are being assigned a risk category to determine if their properties are eligible for a buyout, or whether repairs and extra flood protections need to be put in place before they can return.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and the council were criticised for slow communications when the floods hit, in hindsight telling 1News it was "a shambles", but that he would not change his leadership style.
"I
"We are trying to move things as quickly as possible, but we are dependent on specialist expertise to come in, geotechs and the like, to sort out landslips," he explained, "[but] New Zealand has a shortage of them."
SHARE ME