Auckland Floods

ScottGN · Jan 28, 2023

It’s raining heavily in Auckland again this morning. On top of the record deluge of 249mm in the 24 hours up until 1am this morning.

One person is confirmed dead in floodwaters on the North Shore.

The airport remains closed with heavy flooding through the terminals.

The central city is a disaster zone where the stormwater system appears to have completely failed due to the rain and an incoming high tide. Cars are floating in the streets.

Evacuations are widespread across the metro area. Complicated by the fact that the Council and Mayor’s office were clearly caught out by the speed of the event and very late to declare the State of Emergency (it took until 10 pm for that to happen) that was required for Emergency Response teams to get to work to set up and open the shelters.

ScottGN · Jan 28, 2023

GS · Jan 28, 2023

Old school 10 inches in 24 hrs is a decent event anywhere

ScottGN · Jan 28, 2023

It’s fair to say the Mayor has been found a bit wanting in his initial response to the unfolding disaster across the city but this is striking

ScottGN · Jan 28, 2023

A second death has been confirmed in the same location as the first.

Nidecker · Jan 28, 2023

Twitter.... endless pics

POW Hungry · Jan 28, 2023

Garnering some international attention too:

Rainfall Records Shattered In Auckland, New Zealand - It Wasn’t Even Close

Here's why extreme rainfall in Auckland, New Zealand has scientists saying "Wow" and you should be too.

www.forbes.com

ScottGN · Jan 28, 2023

POW Hungry · Jan 28, 2023

Considerable marine heatwave in play for NZ at the moment, too:

ScottGN · Jan 28, 2023

coolair · Jan 28, 2023

My mrs was trying to get flights & Elton John tickets as a surprise
Holiday to NZ, dident work out fourtantly .
We saw hin in Newcastle 2 weeks ago instead.

Claude Cat · Jan 28, 2023

POW Hungry · Jan 28, 2023

ScottGN said:

Actually, that claim is not even close...

almontyrat · Jan 28, 2023

Any of you weather peeps got any info on the wider NZ situation? My elderly relos are in Whangamata on the east coast not too far as the crow flies from Auckland. Hope they are OK.

Claude Cat · Jan 28, 2023

Crazy images

https://www.news.com.au/technology/...s/news-story/bbd2fa5be2150cf3e909c18be374d941

ScottGN · Jan 28, 2023

Claude Cat said:

Poor guy had to do a joint presser with the Mayor of Auckland who decided to pick a fight with the journos criticising his tardy response to the crisis. You could see Chippy visibly moving away from the mayor as the whole thing went off the rails. A bit like Homer melting into the hedge.

cqen2l · Jan 28, 2023

cqen2l · Jan 28, 2023

Outside our hotel on Beach Street last night.

ScottGN · Jan 28, 2023

cqen2l said:
Outside our hotel on Beach Street last night.

Don’t tell me you came for bloody Elton John as well?

ScottGN · Jan 28, 2023

POW Hungry said:
Considerable marine heatwave in play for NZ at the moment, too:

And so it goes…

Legs Akimbo · Jan 28, 2023

ScottGN said:
Poor guy had to do a joint presser with the Mayor of Auckland who decided to pick a fight with the journos criticising his tardy response to the crisis. You could see Chippy visibly moving away from the mayor as the whole thing went off the rails. A bit like Homer melting into the hedge.

Journalists blessed with hindsight shit me.

cqen2l · Jan 28, 2023

ScottGN said:
Don’t tell me you came for bloody Elton John as well?

Shit no.

cqen2l · Jan 28, 2023

But we didn't come to NZ to get robbed.

Was going very until wife's handbag was snatched a few hours back. Had our passports in it. Don't ask me why they weren't in the hotel safe.......

A whole new adventure about to begin. DFAT says you can travel on an undocumented uplift provided you have additional ID. Qantas says no, get a temporary passport. Both sides say take a chance at 0500 at the airport on Monday morning. A hassle in Sydney if we get through but if we don't then we have to find accommodation back in Auckland, a bit scarce given the recent weather event. And because it's a public holiday here on Monday the consulate is closed. Expect up to 72 hours for a replacement passport. Shambles.

Return to Unzed? Unlikely.

ScottGN · Jan 28, 2023

cqen2l said:
But we didn't come to NZ to get robbed.

Was going very until wife's handbag was snatched a few hours back. Had our passports in it. Don't ask me why they weren't in the hotel safe.......

A whole new adventure about to begin. DFAT says you can travel on an undocumented uplift provided you have additional ID. Qantas says no, get a temporary passport. Both sides say take a chance at 0500 at the airport on Monday morning. A hassle in Sydney if we get through but if we don't then we have to find accommodation back in Auckland, a bit scarce given the recent weather event. And because it's a public holiday here on Monday the consulate is closed. Expect up to 72 hours for a replacement passport. Shambles.

Return to Unzed? Unlikely.

Oh Jesus what a fucking nightmare.

Nidecker · Jan 28, 2023

cqen2l said:
But we didn't come to NZ to get robbed.

Was going very until wife's handbag was snatched a few hours back. Had our passports in it. Don't ask me why they weren't in the hotel safe.......

A whole new adventure about to begin. DFAT says you can travel on an undocumented uplift provided you have additional ID. Qantas says no, get a temporary passport. Both sides say take a chance at 0500 at the airport on Monday morning. A hassle in Sydney if we get through but if we don't then we have to find accommodation back in Auckland, a bit scarce given the recent weather event. And because it's a public holiday here on Monday the consulate is closed. Expect up to 72 hours for a replacement passport. Shambles.

Return to Unzed? Unlikely.

Try another airline??

cqen2l · Jan 28, 2023

Nidecker said:
Try another airline??

I've already paid.

ScottGN · Jan 29, 2023

This timeline of the flood response demonstrates just how badly Aucklanders were let down by just about every Council agency involved from the Mayor down. And possibly one of the most startling things is that not only was the Council and its agencies not telling Aucklanders anything but they weren’t communicating anything to central government in Wellington either.

Stuff: Latest breaking news | New Zealand

www.stuff.co.nz

skifree · Jan 29, 2023

ScottGN said:
This timeline of the flood response demonstrates just how badly Aucklanders were let down by just about every Council agency involved from the Mayor down. And possibly one of the most startling things is that not only was the Council and its agencies not telling Aucklanders anything but they weren’t communicating anything to central government in Wellington either.

Stuff: Latest breaking news | New Zealand

www.stuff.co.nz

If you don’t often have disasters such comms lines & ready made responses tend to not exist or at best be out of date or broken in some way.

Vinny · Jan 29, 2023

How did the water get into the airport building?

dawooduck · Jan 29, 2023

Vinny said:
How did the water get into the airport building?

Someone left a window open

Claude Cat · Jan 29, 2023

ScottGN said:
Poor guy had to do a joint presser with the Mayor of Auckland who decided to pick a fight with the journos criticising his tardy response to the crisis. You could see Chippy visibly moving away from the mayor as the whole thing went off the rails. A bit like Homer melting into the hedge.

Donza · Jan 29, 2023

Claude Cat said:

"the airport shouldn't have been there"

My Cousin got caught up in the shambles at Auckland airport. Trying to get home to England. Sounded like a real shit fest of no one taking any responsibility or action.

SnowBound · Jan 29, 2023

Claude Cat said:

ScottGN · Jan 29, 2023

Donza said:
"the airport shouldn't have been there"

My Cousin got caught up in the shambles at Auckland airport. Trying to get home to England. Sounded like a real shit fest of no one taking any responsibility or action.

It was an absolute shitstorm of incompetence. The Mayor (who belatedly signed the State of Emergency Declaration at 9.27pm and then didn’t bother telling anyone for another 50 minutes), his shambolic office (who didn’t seem to have a basic grasp of the protocols and Comm lines that needed to be established with Wellington and the Minister for Emergency Response), Auckland Emergency Management (who weren’t really taking any of it seriously and weren’t communicating with Civil Defence), Waka Kotahi (who posted a roads update at 7.30pm Fri evening and then said that was them over and out for the public holiday weekend, they were literally reprimanded publicly by a furious Minister of Transport who told them via Twitter to get back to bloody work), the airport (who waited until there was total inundation of the terminals before they did anything). And the list goes on.

ScottGN · Jan 29, 2023

They’re learning I guess

almontyrat · Jan 29, 2023

ScottGN said:
They’re learning I guess

Self evacuate to where exactly one wonders?. All very well saying hey folks it's going to rain lots and you need to get out "if you feel unsafe" but are they giving anyone any direction to emergency shelters etc?

Billy_Buttons · Jan 29, 2023

Well, when it has never happened before, I guess everything goes up shit creek. Just needed to own up to the fact that there was no protocol in place and not detract from that. Open honesty goes for miles and the distance.

dawooduck · Jan 29, 2023

Beached az

GS · Jan 29, 2023

Jacinda retires and the country floods

skifree · Jan 29, 2023

GS said:
Jacinda retires and the country floods

Cause & effect.

Claude Cat · Jan 29, 2023

Bay of Plenty train derailment due to floods.

ScottGN · Jan 30, 2023

Billy_Buttons said:
Well, when it has never happened before, I guess everything goes up shit creek. Just needed to own up to the fact that there was no protocol in place and not detract from that. Open honesty goes for miles and the distance.

It does happen here though, regularly. As a former PM once famously said as floods wreaked havoc across the motu, “Well we are a pluvial country”.
And not just floods of course, there are earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, snow storms and avalanches, etc, etc.
All of which means there are plenty of protocols in place for disaster management.
The problem we’ve just had is that it looks like the bumbling fools in the Mayor’s office and at AEM were ignoring all the protocols and basically made shit up on the basis of sticking their head out the window for a looksee.
And it’s probably no accident that the idiots who now work in the Mayor’s office come from the same cohort of right wing, anti government, political operatives who regularly decry over-regulation, the nanny state, the crippling deadweight of central government and so on.

ScottGN · Jan 30, 2023

Reality sinking in and hopefully we’ll get less intransigence and bombast from the dingbat.

'There may have been' mistakes in flood response - Wayne Brown

Wayne Brown has been criticised for not calling a state of emergency earlier on Friday night.

www.1news.co.nz

ScottGN · Jan 30, 2023

And on TVNZ One News this morning the PM has said he has sent the head of the national emergency agency to Auckland in over the top of the hapless local government officials.

cqen2l · Jan 30, 2023

Auckland airport is still a shit fight. The check in process is clogged. Our flight to Sydney is delayed because there are at least 50 people still going through check-in. Staff shortages not helping, who wants to work on a public holiday after all?

ScottGN · Jan 30, 2023

cqen2l said:
Auckland airport is still a shit fight. The check in process is clogged. Our flight to Sydney is delayed because there are at least 50 people still going through check-in. Staff shortages not helping, who wants to work on a public holiday after all?

To be honest the staff shortages were pretty chronic anyway even without the complication of a public holiday.

ScottGN · Jan 30, 2023

Richard · Jan 30, 2023

Of all the layers of govt, Councils seem to be the most susceptible to calcification if the wrong person becomes Mayor.

And that guy is clearly the wrong person -strongly suspect this is not his first rodeo of berating everyone in his orbit. Management by whacking-stick inevitably gets a culture of inaction & indecision least whacking quotas be doubled.

Claude Cat · Jan 30, 2023

Landslide causes carport, car to fall on to property; five people rescued overnight

Fire crews responded to about 30 weather-related incidents overnight.

www.nzherald.co.nz

Legs Akimbo · Jan 30, 2023

Why was it the council's responsibility to declare an emergency?

Auckland Floods

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relaxed and comfortable

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