Cyclone- hit homeowners bought out

Deal struck on four homes in Auckland

One of the first four Auckland homeowners to have their Cyclone Gabrielle- wrecked home bought out just before Christmas says she’s been “freed of the distress and financial pressure”.

Auckland Council expected to complete the purchase of the first four properties affected by this year’s devastating storms yesterday.

The council’s group recovery manager Mat Tucker said “after a challenging year on many fronts, getting these buyouts over the line ahead of Christmas is a huge milestone for Auckland’s recovery, but particularly for these families”.

“While this won’t feel like great news for many still waiting, this is a good sign that we are shifting up a gear heading into 2024. Given the scale and complexity of what we’re dealing with in Auckland, it’s good to be in line with progress in other storm- affected regions.”

Affected homeowner Caroline Bell- Booth, of Muriwai, told the Weekend Herald she and her husband had been renting a house since the cyclone devastated the isolated west coast community, among others.

“We feel incredibly lucky, and [ thankful to] not only the New Zealand taxpayer and the previous Government, but also people who were really backing the cause within council. For us, the process has been fair and professional,” she said.

“It’s wonderful to be freed of the

We feel incredibly lucky ... But our hearts are very much with the people, not only in our community but right across Auckland, who remain in a situation where they have no clarity.

Muriwai’s Caroline Bell- Booth

distress and financial pressure. It leaves us in a position where [ we’ll have to move to Auckland] when we had no intention of doing so, but it allows us to continue our lives to get something close to what we once had.

“But our hearts are very much with the people, not only in our community but right across Auckland, who remain in a situation where they have no clarity as they approach Christmas and remain in financial and emotional distress.

“There are hundreds of families that are so very far away from reaching this kind of resolve. To your [ readers]; show kindness to anyone [ you] know caught in this very fraught situation.”

The council’s recovery office is working through more than 2200 detailed flood and landslip assessments and categorising properties based on whether there is an intolerable risk to life from future weather events.

Almost 1600 desktop assessments and more than 1000 site assessments have been completed. Over 500 property categories have been confirmed and more than 60 Category 3 property owners are now working through the voluntary buyout process.

Tucker said there were now more flood- related categorisations being delivered in areas across Auckland. That reflected the fact that flood risk solutions were generally less clear- cut than landslip risks.

“We are a good way through our flood assessments, and these have highlighted that a range of solutions are going to be needed because of the diverse needs in different urban and rural communities.

“But with critical funding and policy foundations now in place, we’re starting to deliver surety at a more consistent pace with new categories being confirmed every week.

“While our teams are working hard to complete this work as quickly as possible, we have had to manage expectations. This includes clarifying that most homeowners will have received categorisations by the end of March, with the more complex areas being completed by mid- year,” Tucker said.

In October, Auckland councillors voted to accept a proposed $ 2 billion cost- sharing buyout package for hundreds of uninhabitable properties and other storm- related costs with the Government.

It included the buyout of about 700 Category 3 homes at a cost of $ 774 million, and $ 390m towards fixing roads and bridges affected by the Anniversary Weekend storms and Cyclone Gabrielle.

Tucker said that in the lead- up to Christmas and through the holiday period, the council wanted to remind those struggling that there is a range of support available through its navigators for both practical and emotional/ mental wellbeing needs.