This article was first published by RNZ.
Auckland Council says about 45 percent of homeowners affected by last years’ floods registered for an assessment before the end of the cut-off date.
Just under 3500 homes registered to be categorised by Monday to determine whether they qualify for a council buy-out or funding to improve the flood resilience of their property.
Council’s manager heading the city’s flood recovery, Craig Hobbs, told Nine to Noon there were no guarantees there would be another chance for a council buy-out of flooded homes in the future.
“This is a $2 billion investment from both ratepayers and taxpayers, it’s huge, whether the government or council will be in a position to come to the aid of private homeowners or property owners in the future, really remains to be seen,” he said.
Hobbs said while the cut off date has passed, council may give consideration to homeowners in special circumstances.
He said homeowners were being offered buy-out prices according to the valuation as of 26 January - a day before the Auckland Anniversary floods - which he believed would see owners get a better value than the current market value.
Hobbs said he was aware of owners’ concerns about LIM reports and potential impacts on property valuation. However, he said owners should not assume that that would necessarily devalue their property.
He said council’s primary concern was protecting people from risks to life in future disasters.
“We will have another one (flood), there’s not doubt about that, and again this is our concern is that people may be exposed to risk again in the future, and why we’d like them to get into the programme,” he said.
Hobbs said it could take 10 years for council to complete flood protection works across Auckland’s catchments.
He said it was starting with infrastructure improvements in the Māngere catchment area, and was hoping to complete that project by mid-2026.
The Māngere project was costing $53 million, and other projects would have to be phased as council did not have the funds yet, he said.
There are about 50,000 homes built on flood plains in Auckland, and Hobbs said demolition had already started for potentially up to 1100 homes that pose an intolerable risk to life due to flood risks.
Locals still traumatised by floods
Manukau Ward councillor Lotu Fuli said many in her community were still traumatised and struggling to deal with the aftermath of the floods last year.
“We’re talking about an area of high deprivation, an area where people don’t necessarily have the back-up funds to deal with devastation like that, and families are still traumatised today,” she said.
Fuli said places like Māngere have high numbers of flood-impacted renters who were really concerned about the future.
She said while flood navigators have been able to help communities to access information about the scheme, there was not much they could do when they were unable to reach landlords.
“We’re not necessarily able to contact their landlords, we’ve got staff on the ground who’ve been going out knocking on doors, but if the landlord doesn’t live in Auckland or New Zealand then it makes it very difficult to contact them,” she said.
Fuli said council was doing the best it could.
“This is something that we were totally unprepared for, something we’ve never gone through before as a city, but also we now realise that this is part of the climate crisis we are in, this is the new normal, and we are certainly going to learn from what’s happened, and hopefully if it happens again - we’re told it will happen again - we’ll be more prepared for it,” she said.
- RNZ