Iwi rally to help those impacted by flooding in Tāmaki Makaurau

Iwi are rallying and marae are opening their doors to help people affected by flooding in Tāmaki Makaurau.

The region remains in a state of emergency after a major flood event on Friday and more rain over the weekend.

At least 5000 properties are being assessed for damage and four people have died in Auckland’s “wettest day on record”.

Papakura Marae chief executive Tony Kake said he is starting to get more calls from people in need of support.

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“It’s starting to change, initially Papakura got off fairly lightly, but just with the continued rain we’re starting to get more inquiries,” he said.

“Put it this way, Papakura Marae are happy to step up and support families on request.”

Kake said the marae can provide food, clothing and accommodation for those in need.

“We need to do an assessment per family and suss out what they need and go from there,” he said.

“But food, basic clothing… and accommodation. If we do need to, we’re happy to put them up at the marae.”

Kake said he is concerned the flooding will get worse, but positive his community will pull through.

“On the whole, if all the providers, all the partners and all the emergency crews dealt with their area, I think it’ll be right,” he said.

“Papakura wasn’t affected that bad yesterday but my gut feeling, and just by the way that the phone calls are starting to come through, it would have changed today.”

Manurewa Marae chief executive Takutai Natasha Kemp said her team is providing support for the local community.

“We’re providing kai packs, we’re providing support with MSD. Anything that whānau need really during this time,” she said.

Kemp’s team has set up a phone line for people in the community to ring if they need support.

She said some whānau are just grateful to know that people are checking in on them.

“Just being here for whānau. We have opened our wharenui if there are any whānau that are stranded or that don’t have accommodation,” she said.

But Kemp is concerned a lot of people she has contacted don’t know that Tāmaki Makaurau is in a state of emergency, or what a state of emergency is.

“We have to describe it like being in a red or orange restriction of Covid. If you’re not affected by the flooding stay home. If you are, you need to get help,” she said.

“You’ve got to really break it down for people, they are actually quite anxious, some whānau are quite scared.”

She said her team is reassuring whānau to stay calm, and stay at home if they don’t need to leave.

“We might not be the area that’s impacted the most with the floods, but our people are just as anxious and scared, even with the rain that’s coming down now here in Manurewa,” she said.

“It’s really just about being available, but people do feel scared, they do feel anxious, they’re unsure.”