House starts to collapse on west Auckland road hit by Cyclone Gabrielle

A west Auckland Road remains closed on Wednesday morning after a red-stickered home showed signs of collapsing, police say.

The house was damaged in a recent landslide and started to give way on Tuesday night.

Scenic Drive is closed between Waitakere Road and Puketaha Road, a police spokesperson said.

Local Scenic Drive resident Sue, who did not want her last name used, said the house had been deteriorating for weeks and was supposed to be removed on Monday.

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“We’ve seen this house changing shape and slowly deteriorate over the last few weeks, and it’s just gotten worse,” she said.

A Stuff reporter at the scene said she could hear the house creaking from across the street.

The property was unoccupied and no one was in imminent danger.

Elham Babaee lived next door to the property and was evacuated from her red-stickered home following cyclone Gabrielle.

She said in May, they had been notified by council that there was a possibility of the house collapsing onto the road and warned it could also damage their home.

Babaee was “mad” the house had not yet been removed.

“I don’t know what happened, but they didn’t demolish it and then last night I got a call from [the owner] saying the house saying the house had collapsed,” she said.

Shane Henderson, Councillor for Waitākere, said some locals decided to evacuate their homes in case the situation worsens.

“There’s a lot of concerns about slips and road closures. People are not necessarily feeling safe… Locals saying they felt the need to get out of the area.

“Council and the agency will be working really hard to and get everything really safe and try and get the road open again,” Henderson said.

Auckland Council’s Mervyn Chetty previously told Stuff the area had been affected by rainfall over the last few days which led to further slips on Tuesday evening.

“This is one of a number of red placarded properties on this stretch of Scenic Drive in Swanson,” Chetty said.

“The council has been working with the property owners on controlled demolition of the home, which has included ensuring the necessary geotechnical assessments are carried out before work begins.”

He urged people to observe all cordons and roadblocks, adding that the council’s team would reassess the situation on Wednesday morning.

Police left the scene at around 5.50am on Wednesday. Auckland Council is doing traffic control across the area.