Aucklanders rise to occasion
Everyday heroes step up to help the young, the old and the animals. By
Asleeping toddler evacuated through a window. An elderly woman rescued from her house by lifeguards. A digger driver named Dug who saved people’s homes.
Amidst the widespread devastation and heartbreaking tragedies stemming from an unprecedented rainfall, stories of bravery and kindness are emerging from flood-stricken Auckland.
In the hours before the city’s mayor, Wayne Brown, declared a state of emergency on Friday night, 79 people were rescued by surf life savers, who were described by their boss ‘‘as a wonderful bunch of heroes’’.
‘‘All those who worked last night still have their lives to clean up today,’’ Matt Williams, head of the region’s surf life saving group, said yesterday.
‘‘And because of them there are 79 people who made it through and are also able to rebuild in the morning.’’
While officials face criticism about both a lack of communication and delay in declaring an emergency, other Aucklanders just got on with the job, helping themselves and their community.
Muriwai SAR squad coordinator Glenn Gowthorpe said a 3-year-old boy sleeping on a couch floating in a flooded Kumeā home remained blissfully unaware of his rescue, which included a boat ride through pitch-black waters.
‘‘He only woke up when we handed him over to the emergency services. There was clapping and cheers.’’
A second rescue at a nearby property saw an 80-year-old woman evacuated from the second storey of her house to a rescue boat waiting on the storey below.
Earlier in the night, as
Natasha McKnight and her Pukekohe neighbours desperately dug trenches around their homes, Dugmore Mango arrived out of the darkness hauling a digger behind his ute.
Mango was on his way home after checking whether his inlaws needed any help and, without hesitation, pulled over in the floodwaters, unloaded his digger and got to work.
‘‘I just saw people that were struggling and digging with shovels, so I pulled over to help,’’ he said yesterday. ‘‘It would’ve been heartless to just drive by, you can’t do that as a human being.’’
Dugmore managed to divert water away from McKnight’s property until it stopped raining as heavily: ‘‘He was our hero,’’ she said.
Rachel Mario of the Mt Roskill Whanau Community Hub was heading out on her regular Friday delivery of food boxes when the floodwaters forced her to turn around. Not long after, her phone started ringing.
‘‘We started getting calls from people needing a place to stay; it was a bit of a shock.’’
Eventually, about 20 people spent the night at the centre, sleeping on mats and blankets from its supplies and making use of the undelivered food boxes.
Yesterday morning some of the displaced people had left while others were still arriving. A few women with ‘‘domestic issues’’ had turned up looking for a safe place to shelter from not just the water but the human danger in their homes.
‘‘I’d like to let everyone know that whenever someone needs help, that’s what we’re here for.’’
But while the tales of kindness and community spirit are a little ray of sunlight, the extent of the disaster’s toll is still unknown.
Three deaths had been confirmed by last night – two men died in separate flooding incidents and a person was found dead after a landslide brought down a house in Remuera. A fourth person remains missing after being swept away in waters at Onewhero.
Fire crews responded to 719 weather incidents, answered 2242 emergency calls, and made 126 rescues on Friday and early yesterday. By the afternoon the service was still working through
‘It would’ve been heartless to just drive by.’ DUGMORE MANGO Digger operator
a backlog of about 1355 less urgent 111 calls from overnight, contacting callers to see whether they still need assistance.
In one of the hardest-hit areas of the city, residents of Kā inga Ora homes on Clover Drive, Henderson had their homes
swamped and left practically uninhabitable by water, mud and debris.
West Auckland residents
Safunga and Seve Uatea were forced to swim from their property on Friday afternoon, battling against the flow of water
by pulling themselves along by fence posts.
Yesterday morning Seve was picking through his possessions while at the back of the house, a silver hatchback was balanced at a precarious angle having been swept in from the road earlier on.
Their house is caked in mud and marks from water stretching nearly 2 metres up on walls, yet by 2pm yesterday they were still to hear from Kā inga Ora.
‘‘We are trying to get some good stuff, put it in a bag and leave.’’
Further along the same road, Lina Anderson was also yet to hear from the agency but was staying despite the water and mud in her soaked house.
As well as leaving her fridge and freezer broken, the flood swept away her children’s favourite toys, school uniforms and iPad.
‘‘I was prepared but now it is all gone. It was very scary. The water rises up so quick. You try to get your kids out in such a panic. When I tried to get out the water is already near my neck, but I am short.’’
Kā inga Ora deputy chief executive John Tubberty said the agency had received more than 100 calls overnight and about 250 to midday yesterday.
‘‘We’re aware of several properties which are badly damaged, but at this stage it is too early to give a definitive count of homes which are damaged, or unable to be occupied.’’
In West Auckland, some residents were still without water yesterday afternoon, and exhausted travellers prepared to spend another night at the city’s airport amid mass cancellations.
Matt and Jess – who is seven months pregnant – had spent 24 hours trying to get home to the UK with their 3-year-old daughter, Willow. After spending Friday night in an airport lounge, airport security with dogs kicked them out and back into the departure hall, Matt said.
‘‘We have nowhere to go. We can’t find a hotel that has beds, so are looking into going to one of the defence shelters.’’
Another stranded traveller, Sera Bostan, was desperate to get her family home after her mother, Ahar, slipped in the rain on Friday night and broke her knee.
Having spent the night in hospital, the family of four need to return to Turkey so Ahar can undergo emergency surgery.
If she has the surgery in New Zealand, she will be unable to travel for at least two weeks; the family were meant to fly out on Friday evening.
And while the floods have left humans experiencing devastating grief, sickening uncertainty and unimaginable loss, animals are also suffering.
As terrified domestic pets were caught up in the deluge, some were taken in by strangers, while Milford resident Sami Thompson battled chest-deep waters as she carried her 20kg border collie to safety.
‘‘The current was so strong, the water was so gross. It was terrifying,’’ she said.
Laura Schwerdtfeger, director and veterinarian of The Lifestyle Vet, expected there would be hundreds of animals in need of medical care after the flooding.
Her Waimauku-based clinic had been busy fielding calls most of yesterday morning and seeing to some animals being brought in – including a sheep found five metres up a tree after floodwaters receded. The rest of the flock died.
And in Waimauku, Jordan Clark and a quartet of mates went to the rescue of about 20 sheep left on rapidly shrinking higher ground in a neighbour’s paddock. ‘‘It felt like the right thing to do.’’