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Ana Tuiloma has been living in a hotel with her six kids since water climbed halfway up her walls in January.
On Tuesday, she rushed back to her empty Henderson home after getting the civil defence flood warning.
Auckland was in a state of emergency after torrential rain saw parts of the city flooding, again.
Tuiloma found knee-high water in her garage, but only a suitcase was drenched this time.
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There wasn’t much left to flood.
Tuiloma’s battle has moved on from her Don Buck Rd home as the night shift worker and first generation Samoan-Kiwi tries to rebuild her life.
Lawrence Smith/Stuff
Ana Tuiloma sits in the back of her car after heavy rain on Tuesday.
Every morning, after work, Tuiloma takes her kids from the hotel in Avondale all the way to school in Massey.
“It’s been really tough,” she said.
“In the hotel, we can’t take all the stuff we need.”
Lawrence Smith/Stuff
Ana Tuiloma sits in her car (right) as government minister Michael Wood answers questions from the press.
She’s received $20,000 from insurance, but is struggling to find a rental property for the family of eight.
On top of the loss of her home, Tuiloma is still paying a mortgage on the Don Buck Rd home, while living in the Avondale hotel.
On Tuesday afternoon, Tuiloma spoke to Minister for Auckland Michael Wood when he arrived at a Glen Rd car park for a news conference.
Wood couldn’t confirm if financial support would be extended after Tuesday’s flooding.
Lawrence Smith/Stuff
Michael Wood speaks to media in West Auckland after heavy rain on Tuesday.
“We still, in Auckland, have 4-to-500 households who are currently in temporary accomodation services, we’ll obviously need to take stock after this event to the level of damage and additional households who might be affected.”
But financial assistance now won’t affect the long-term issues, and Wood said the Government had work underway on interventions into the housing market.
“It’s about making some big decisions about how our cities grow, where houses should be and where they shouldn’t be, particularly if we have repeat events like this.”
James Halpin/Stuff
Clover Drive is fenced off after the state housing was flooded in January.
Just around the corner from Tuiloma’s home is Clover Drive, now a ghost street.
Clover Drive saw some of the city’s worst flooding in January with residents having to swim out of their houses.
Now, most of the street is empty, with yellow-stickered houses lining the street.
Karmen Fitzgerald and Ernest Maxwell are two of the residents who remain, after their house had avoided the worst of January’s flooding.
“I thought, ‘not again, not again,” Fitzgerald said of Tuesday’s rain.
James Halpin/Stuff
Ernest Maxwell and Karmen Fitzgerald are two of the residents who remain on Clover Drive.
Fitzgerald’s home hadn’t flooded this time or last, but since January, mice and some kind of termite had plagued the house.
She said the metal fencing had only gone up on the street last week after there had been a break-in in one of the houses.
Kāinga Ora had fixed her own properties wooden fencing after her dog was impounded which sandbag-looking bags of sawdust rest against for a garden Fitzgerald is going to plant.
Fitzgerald doesn’t want to leave.
“We’re staying here, or we’re going into emergency housing,” Fitzgerald said.
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