Auckland Council urge community not to visit storm impacted parks, sports grounds and beaches

With Cyclone Gabrielle having impacted New Zealand's north just weeks after Auckland and surrounding areas endured record rainfall and flooding, Auckland Council is encouraging the community to stay at home and not head to parks, sports grounds and beaches for recreational purposes or to view the effects of the storm.

The storm over Auckland Anniversary weekend has left the ground saturated, and Cyclone Gabrielle has brought gale-force winds, so trees could be blown over unexpectedly and slips are also highly likely. Auckland Council state “The safest place to be is at home.”

A national state of emergency has been declared in New Zealand after widespread damage from Cyclone Gabrielle, the country's worst storm in generations. Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty made the declaration at 8.43am yesterday as Kiwis woke to flooding, power loss, road closures and phone network outages from the massive storm. Thousands of people have been evacuated across the country, at least 225,000 were without power, and fears are held for the lives of several New Zealanders.

Auckland Council has had reports of extensive damage to assets in some sports fields, with parts of the roof coming off clubrooms and cricket nets damaged at Victor Eaves Park in Ōrewa.

As such, all sports fields across the region are closed. Signage is being put up by contractors but may be delayed due to contractors having to respond to urgent storm-related incidents. Regardless of signage being in place or not, the closures are in place. Allowing the fields time to recover will allow sport to be able to commence sooner.

The community is also being urged to stay away from beaches and coastlines. Low-lying areas like beaches are susceptible to storm surges while cliff faces can give way without any notice. Additionally, some beaches like Ōrewa are seeing beach erosion and trees blown down.

Council staff and contractors will carry out the process of checking all park assets and tracks again. Due to the intensity of Cyclone Gabrielle, they are expecting a lot of track closures and more park assets damaged or closed.

Regional Parks
Council encourages people to stay away from regional parks, particularly those north of Orewa where rainfall and winds are predicted to be greatest, and in the Waitākere and Hunua Ranges. Both the Waitākere and Hunua Ranges are water catchment areas and water levels can rise rapidly.

Local Parks
A lot of local parks are not accessible or are unsafe to access due to flooding and storm damage. Council remind people to not swim or play in floodwaters. These floodwaters are unsafe for a few reasons:

• Flood waters may be contaminated with sewerage

• Flood waters capture a lot of debris so the risk of standing on something harmful or getting stuck in something you cannot see is too high

• Flood waters may be hiding things like exposed maintenance hole covers

• Additionally, with the amount of rain experienced, these areas are susceptible to flash flooding and slips.

Parks Accommodation
If you have an accommodation booking with Council, please consider all emergency management warnings. If in doubt, postpone or cancel your bookings online by 11:59am on the day prior to your arrival. Council has temporarily suspended the 5-day prior refund and amendment rules which means you can now have a full booking refund or reschedule to another date (excluding bank transaction fees) until 11.59 pm of the day prior to your arrival. You can manage any booking refunds or amendments by logging on to your MyAuckland account.

Image: Credit Auckland Council