Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air
Two weeks after Cyclone Gabrielle ravaged the North Island and with news of another tropical storm brewing in the Pacific, one Auckland homeowner is weary of another disaster.
Sixty-five year old Mu Tagaloa lives in Otahuhu, South Auckland. During Cyclone Gabrielle he received an emergency alert on his phone while at work and decided to hurry home to check on his property.
“I was a little bit worried and stressed,” he says.
“The water was bloody everywhere, debris and rubbish were all floating down my driveway.”
Large amounts of rain water flowed down his driveway and into his garage, flowing through under his home. Without proper drainage, the rising waters began to flood his home.
“When that bloody hole in front of the garage is filled, it goes everywhere,” he says.
And the house wasn’t the only part of the property affected, flood waters drowned his beloved garden, spreading thick mounds of dirt everywhere.
“It ruined everything; drowned all my plants,” he says.
Tagaloa says many of his problems sprout from a part of his property that is constructed without proper drainage access. It results in rising storm water leaving him vulnerable to flooding.
“There should be a drain that leads to the back water [Tamaki River] but there isn’t,” he says.
“It’s bad and things are getting worse.”
Tagaloa says that the Auckland City Council should have better prepared for the Cyclone, especially coming just two weeks after severe rain caused widespread flooding throughout the region in the space of only a few hours.
And while he admits that he escaped relatively unscathed from those floods, Tagaloa was not so lucky with Cyclone Gabrielle.
As well as flood damage, wind gusts snapped the support beams propping up a 10 metre long fence between himself and his neighbours property. The fence is currently being held up with poles.
“I put those things in there and if I take the timber out they will fall down. It’s just there until I can afford to fix it.”
Since propping up the fence, Tagaloa has spent up to $1000 in repairs already.
In his garage, belongings have been packed into containers and suitcases, and hoisted onto shelves crafted from repurposed wooden pallets.
With so much of this home under repair, he is worried that these kinds of events will continue to occur.
“After three days of rain, the water begins to come up from the drains. And just rests there because it has nowhere to escape,” he says.
“It takes up to four days or even up to a week for the water to clear out from the driveway. I’m worried this will happen again”.
