District drowning as river runs riot
Every time there is persistent, torrential rain, large chunks of Clevedon drown.
It happened in March last year and several times previously, and it happened again on Sunday, when the river rose more than 4 metres.
Residents of the picturesque rural south Auckland settlement say this is how it is when you live in a flood plain, close to the ocean and surrounded by hills.
However even long-time locals agree that flooding is becoming more frequent and they worry about imminent residential development, including along the banks of the Wairoa River.
Local Susan Curran said the increased frequency of flooding also raised concerns about access, sewage overflow and the safety of people and their livestock.
In March last year, the district was hit by torrential flooding during the ‘‘Tasman Tempest’’.
Drone footage after Sunday’s deluge, showed the damage caused when local rivers breach their banks.
Heavily pregnant Kate Ormond lives on a road which runs parallel to the Wairoa River.
On Sunday evening, the river suddenly flooded her road under 1.5m of water.
The river normally sits about 0.8m deep. On Sunday it peaked at 5.1m about 7.30pm.
Ormond said she was ‘‘massively’’ worried about future development in the village.
‘‘How? Where is the infrastructure?
‘‘It all goes under water.’’ The Auckland Council does monitor the river’s level.
However when Stuff rang council and Civil Defence on Sunday, they appeared unaware the river was showing an ‘‘alarm’’ status.
At the time, Auckland Transport also said it had no knowledge of flooded roads in the area.
One of those flooded roads was still open at 7.40pm when Ollie Ormond, standing on his friend’s deck, heard a loud ‘‘boofff’’.
‘‘A car had driven straight into all that water,’’ said Ormond.
Ormond and his friends went down in their truck and waded down the road to find a 60-yearold woman sitting in her submerged car in a state of shock.
Ormond said the water was up to his waist. After pulling the woman out of the car, they tried to tow the car but it was so waterlogged, it wouldn’t budge.
Auckland Transport said yesterday that its contractors were in Clevedon on Sunday.
Heavy rain hammered northern parts of the country on Sunday, with up to 140mm of rain falling in less than 12 hours, causing slips and surface flooding, and bringing down trees. In the Coromandel Peninsula there were several slips and early yesterday surface flooding was still evident. In Auckland, Albany recorded 31.3mm of rain between 7am and 8am on Sunday.