After the storms –Puhoi’s progress

It’s been two months since the first of three exceptional storms struck Puhoi on January 27, when the river rose quicker and higher than anyone could remember. Massive trees, branches and debris, including sofas, show jumps and picnic tables, were swept down the swollen river, the store, library and sportsfields were swamped and countless slips closed roads. As if that wasn’t enough, there were repeat performances from Cyclone Gabrielle on February 13 and the heavy rains of February 27. Local Matters spoke to some of the people affected to see what’s happened since.

Driving through Puhoi on a warm autumn day, it scarcely seems possible this is the same place that saw floodwater so deep a shipping container floated down the main street.

At the community’s heart, the Puhoi General Store bore the brunt of the floods and lost almost everything, but it was still where everyone gathered the next day. Dozens of local businesses and residents turned up to help owners Nic Lodewyks and Jo Lloyd with the water, mud and stinking mess left behind.

Everything inside needed to be stripped out, from stock, furniture and fittings to the plaster on the walls; even the community postboxes were chock-full of mud.

Eight weeks on, the shop doors are tentatively open again, supplying coffee and a select range of items to locals, visitors and a steady stream of workers from the nearby motorway.

Lodewyks said it was good to see that there were still people coming through.

“It doesn’t look too bad when the sun’s out and it’s good to get a bit of money going through the till again,” he said.

He said the shop and house had been stripped, cleaned and were now ready to be rebuilt, though like many other people, he was waiting for the go-ahead from insurers.

Lodewyks added that things might have been different without all the help he had received, and he said they were all incredibly grateful to the community. As well as physical assistance, a community Givealittle appeal has raised more than $28,000 for the family.

Over the road at the Puhoi Library, the volunteer committee was still waiting to hear when it could get into the building to clear out the layers of silt and start planning for the future.

The flood water went over the library door and destroyed everything inside except for items on the very top shelf – more than

Auckland Council’s response:

Puhoi Sportsground

Work was due to get underway last week and Council thanked Puhoi for its patience.

“The initial stages of the process will involve rubbish removal and the waterblasting of furniture and the wharves. This will be followed by the removal of silt from the carpark and tennis courts, and the reopening of the toilets, which we expect to be completed in the coming weeks.

“Unfortunately, the under-surface of the playground will need to be fully removed and replaced, which will take a little longer, and the final step of the process will be the removal of the 60mm of silt that has been deposited on the sportsfields.”

Puhoi River

Council’s Healthy Waters has completed a drone survey of the Puhoi river to check for critical blockages and is preparing a recommendation report.

“Once the report is finalised, we will be able to action the removal of further stream blockages. However, this work will first be assessed and prioritised based on factors including the severity of the blockage, the health and safety risks, and in the context of the hundreds of stream

6000 books, documents and photographs were ruined and sent to the tip.

Committee chair Sandra Beagley said there were locals keen to get in and clear up the mess, but they had been told to wait as it was yellow-stickered.

Puhoi Sports & Community Club president Troy Connolly was also waiting to hear from Auckland Council over what was going to happen with the siltcovered carpark, tennis courts, playground, sportsfield and taped-off public toilets. He said while he understood Council was under a lot of pressure, it was frustrating that nothing had yet happened.

“They say it’s a work in progress, but nobody does anything. We need some action,” he said. “There was a massive crew of council people in here yesterday, but they stood around then went away without doing anything.

“I saw one guy last week and asked if he was here to clean the playground, but he blockages also identified by surveys across the entire Auckland region.

Council said it did not currently have a timeline and work could take several months.

Council added streams running through private property were the responsibility of landowners and said is wasn’t intending to approach forestry operators to help with clearance.

Puhoi Library was just there to put the signs up.” The thick layer of silt over everything means the Puhoi markets still can’t be held and the football field is unplayable this season, meaning the club misses out on another season of matches and social gatherings. Many locals are concerned over the amount of debris still blocking the Puhoi River upstream leading to worse than usual flooding. Places that had never flooded until January 27 have already been inundated twice since then.

Council said it was unable to say how long it would take for it to be cleared or reopened.

Ahuroa Road residents Liz and Doug McLaren are having to deal with the extent of river debris first-hand. They had huge quantities of trees, branches and slash pile through the river running alongside their property, carving a swathe of destruction.

“When you look at the river, there are such big jams and such a lot of silt, willows, logs, slash, you name it – until that’s cleared, we’re just going to continue to have floods,” Liz said.

She said a huge number of trunks, stumps and debris from nearby pine harvesting had been washed down a waterfall that drops through native bush at the edge of their property

“It built up and built up and it’s let go, taken out everything in its path, dropped tonnes and tonnes of slash and wiped out the waterfall. Tonnes fell into the river and jammed up 20 to 30 metres from our bridge.”

While Council cleared a major logjam near a bridge linking the McLarens’ home to Ahuroa Road, she is concerned that there are still countless fallen trees, logs and branches still causing blockages all along the river, and suggested it would make sense for Council and forestry companies to pool their resources and work together to clear blockages.

John Watson, Hibiscus & Bays Councillor john.watson@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz

Titanic job ahead

Hot on the heels of three years of Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve started 2023 with devastating floods, a cyclone and an evolving financial crisis. Throw in large scale public transport disruptions and people could be forgiven for thinking it’s all getting a bit too much. All that’s missing is famine and war!

As far as this new council’s financial woes go, it has been handed the mother of all hospital passes from outgoing mayor Phil Goff while he heads off to the diplomatic high life in London as British High Commissioner, appointment courtesy of old friends in government.

In this respect I hope Aucklanders realise the council’s $11.4 billion debt and $300m per annum operating deficit didn’t just appear over the Christmas break. They arise as a consequence of the management of the Super City over the last decade and in particular the last six year tenure of former Mayor Goff.

While it would be easy for the likes of myself, Cr Wayne Walker and others to say “we told you so” that’s scant consolation given the monumental task now required to turn this particular financial Titanic around. For what is now required is a fundamental restructure of the entire organisation, CCOs included – they are simply not sustainable in the current form. Capital expenditure must be markedly reduced and the top heavy managerial bureaucracy rationalised (as opposed to the important front line services the community value).

Yet some still seek to extend the carefree ‘borrow, rate and sell’ modus operandi of the past for a few more years by selling off the last vestiges of what remains of Auckland’s assets – that is airport shares and ports – but once they’ve gone, that’s it. In a little over a decade they’ll have hocked off anything of value that previous councils spent generations building up.

In spite of all this, however, it is not all doom and gloom, especially on the Hibiscus Coast.

A budget for recovery from the floods, which includes improved localised infrastructure and maintenance provision, will proceed as a top priority in anticipation of future events. Additionally we are fortunate that major infrastructure projects like Penlink and the Northern Motorway improvements were secured in advance of the natural disasters. The same goes for significant upgrades around the Coast for parks and community facilities for finances will be tight from hereon in.

Finally, there is an old saying that ‘out of adversity comes opportunity’. Over the next few years Auckland will have the chance to put that to the test.