“Keep those calls and photographs coming in” – that’s the message from Auckland City works committee chair Doug Astley following this week’s storm.

Cr Astley says hundreds of Aucklanders have contacted the council about flooding related issues stemming from Wednesday night’s heavy
rain and the information will be used to plot problem areas around the city.

“The information is vital to our future stormwater catchment management planning so that we can track areas of flooding and figure out how best to avoid future problems,” he said.

“Auckland City is preparing catchment management plans for all of the isthmus during the next five years and we need data from events like Wednesday night’s storm so that we can get the best results.”

Cr Astley says the council is investing $16.8 million in stormwater works in the next 12 months, representing a 25 per cent increase on the previous year’s allocation.

“Within two years, we’ll have doubled the spend with a $23million allocation for stormwater works in the 2002-03 financial year,” he said. “Auckland City is actively working to upgrade its stormwater systems so that incidents like this week’s flooding happen far less often.
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“We are going ahead with the upgrade as fast as we can, given the need for data collection and analysis and planning permission.”

Cr Astley said the city’s stormwater system was generally designed to cope with a one in 10 year flood and this week’s overload was attributable to exceptionally heavy rainfall in pockets of the city.

The storm had not been predicted and came at the tail-end of a day’s solid rain. Water had found its own flow paths, often through people’s backyards, driveways and sometimes houses, with particular problems being reported in Remuera, Mt Roskill, Epsom and the CBD.

“The flood is a reminder to us all that we need to put on our gumboots and clean out our gutters and gratings regularly,” Cr Astley said.

ENDS

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