The next morning, he had a visit from a police officer delivering the sad news that Daniel Miller had been found dead in a culvert on Target Rd at about 7.30pm that Friday.<\/p>\n
Daniel Miller.<\/p>\n
One of the other victims that night was 25-year-old Daniel Newth, who lived in Sunnynook and was also swept into the Wairau Valley storm drains<\/a> while kayaking in the floodwaters.<\/p>\n The two other victims were Dave Lennard, 78, who died after his Remuera home was hit by a landslip, and 58-year-old Dave Young, who was swept away in floodwaters in the rural Waikato town of Onewhero.<\/p>\n The rain outside is just one of the many constant reminders about his son that stay with Steve Miller. Daniel Miller grew up in Napier and moved to Auckland when he was 19. <\/p>\n \u201cThere is always January 27 coming up, birthdays, Christmases, rainy days,\u201d the 61-year-old father said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like it happened only yesterday. It\u2019s harrowing for the family. For me, his mum and his two sons miss him dearly. It\u2019s something that never really goes away. People say it gets easier with time, but it hasn\u2019t felt that way yet.\u201d<\/p>\n Miller attended last year\u2019s coronial inquest<\/a> via video link, listening for hours until he felt it was no longer helping. He did, however, submit a statement calling for manhole covers to be locked, which was read to the court.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been to the manhole. There was a cross there and a bunch of flowers. I\u2019ve been there. I\u2019ve touched it. I\u2019ve looked at it.<\/p>\n \u201cA sad accident happened that should never have happened. The manhole cover blew off. They shouldn\u2019t be able to blow off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Andrew Skelton, head of flood resilience operations at Auckland Council\u2019s Healthy Waters division, expressed the council\u2019s deepest sympathy to Steve Miller over the tragic loss of his son.<\/p>\n He said manhole covers<\/a> can become dislodged during flooding, creating a safety risk.<\/p>\n \u201cTo reduce these risks, the council is installing safety grills and self\u2011closing covers in high\u2011risk areas or where safety concerns are known,\u201d Skelton said.<\/p>\n \u201cThese grills allow stormwater to flow while preventing people from entering the pipes. The programme will cost $9.5 million over four years, and more than 2300 grills have already been installed.\u201d<\/p>\n Another step the council has taken since the floods is to proceed with a controversial plan to redevelop half of Takapuna Golf Course<\/a> for a flood-detention wetland for Wairau Valley and Milford.<\/p>\n The Wairau flood resilience project is part of the council\u2019s Making Space for Water programme, which has allocated $760m to building infrastructure that manages floodwaters in temporary reservoirs or detention sinks, usually on parkland.<\/p>\n Steve Miller wasn\u2019t aware of the golf course plan, but welcomed the action to prevent future flooding in the low-lying basin on the North Shore.<\/p>\n Brendon and Steph Deacon\u2019s experience doesn\u2019t compare to Miller losing his son, but it underscores how those excluded from the council\u2019s buyout scheme are left feeling helpless and anxious whenever heavy rain is forecast.<\/p>\n The Deacons evacuated their home<\/a> by grabbing their two young toddlers and kayaking to safety in the middle of the night when the Kume\u016b River overflowed on to their Huapai property during a flood in 2021.<\/p>\n They were better prepared for the Auckland Anniversary weekend floods in 2023, but the rising water levels still made it a frightening ordeal. In the three years since, nine properties around their Pinotage Place home have been classified as an intolerable risk to life and bought out.<\/p>\n But not the Deacons\u2019, which now sits like an island, surrounded by vacant land.<\/p>\n The past three years have been incredibly tough on the young family, who left their home of nine years at the weekend for Laings Beach, where Brendon Deacon\u2019s sister has generously offered them a house for 12 months.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have our ups and downs; it\u2019s been quite an emotional rollercoaster,\u201d Steph Deacon said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is still a huge amount of rain anxiety for us,\u201d she said, adding that last Wednesday\u2019s storm meant her husband was up all night keeping an eye on the water level.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the impact on the couple\u2019s daughters, aged 8 and 6.<\/p>\n The other night, Megan Deacon, who\u2019s 8, kept asking, \u201cIs it going to flood? Is it going to flood?\u201d It was hard to reassure her when you don\u2019t know yourself what\u2019s going to happen, Brendon Deacon said. He has spent years trying to explain to the girls why neighbouring houses and their friends have disappeared.<\/p>\n The Deacons have applied to the High Court for a judicial review after the council classified their property as low\u2011risk<\/a>, Category 1, rather than Category 3, which would indicate an intolerable risk to life and property. They subsequently sought a buyout under special circumstances, but that application was also declined.<\/p>\n \u201cOur message to the council is to do what\u2019s right. Be human about things. Stop hiding behind emails, stop hiding behind lawyers,\u201d Brendon Deacon said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is all about risk to life. Our children were put at risk to life. We were put at risk to life. Just do the human thing and give us what our neighbours got to move out of a dangerous place.\u201d<\/p>\n Group recovery manager Mace Ward said the council understands how challenging the situations are for storm-affected people and recognised that some outcomes may not be what people hoped for.<\/p>\n \u201cOur priority is to support recovery in line with agreed government and council risk policies and risk frameworks, which are essential to ensure equity when using public funds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Ward would not comment on the Deacons\u2019 case while it was before the court.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re now at the tail end of a huge recovery programme<\/a>, with thousands of individual repair and recovery initiatives delivered across the region by the Auckland Council group. Some of the hardest work hasn\u2019t been the physically visible stuff; it\u2019s been supporting Aucklanders to make incredibly difficult decisions about their future,\u201d Ward said.<\/p>\n The council has settled 1038 property buyouts, with a further 51 pending settlements. A small number of complex cases are expected to be resolved by May.<\/p>\n On road damage, Ward said many of the more than 2000 slips were cleared in the months after the storms, with 96% now completed.<\/p>\n Last year, Scenic Drive, the main route to Piha<\/a>, was reopened after multiple slips. Most of the remaining major worksites are in West Auckland, and Auckland Transport is expected to complete the recovery programme by mid-2026, Ward said.<\/p>\n Watercare and the council\u2019s Healthy Waters division have completed major network repairs, including to the wastewater networks in Murrays Bay, Northcote and Pukekohe.<\/p>\n Funding and designs have been confirmed for four major multimillion\u2011dollar flood\u2011resilience projects, accelerating nearly $200m of work. Two projects now underway in M\u0101ngere are due for completion this year; one replacing a bridge on a key transport route and the other replacing a wastewater pipe that carries 70% of Auckland\u2019s wastewater, to reduce major blockage risks.<\/p>\n After the January 27 floods, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown commissioned a rapid review by former Police Commissioner Mike Bush into the emergency response.<\/p>\n The damning Bush review<\/a> found a \u201csystem failure\u201d of leadership in the first 12 hours of the response, in which \u201cmuch of the damage was done\u201d before the council, or Brown, had taken any action.<\/p>\n Brown was also heavily criticised in the days after the floods for his slowness to declare a state of emergency until after 10pm that Friday, despite emergency services being at capacity since about 5pm.<\/p>\n Asked recently by the Herald what he had learned from the floods, Brown acknowledged he had learned a lot.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t particularly well prepared. The council wasn\u2019t particularly well prepared. Auckland Emergency Management wasn\u2019t well prepared. The city wasn\u2019t well prepared.<\/p>\n \u201cAuckland Emergency Management is a hell of a lot better than it was. Fenz [Fire and Emergency New Zealand] has also taken a step forward. What I\u2019m most proud of, which came out of that, is the Healthy Waters programme \u2018Making Space for Water\u2019.<\/a> I think that\u2019s a marvellous thing, even if it does upset one or two golfers from Takapuna. In the long term, it\u2019s a really good thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n The mayor has also thanked Aucklanders for following Auckland Emergency Management\u2019s guidance over last week\u2019s heavy rains and for taking the necessary steps to prepare for the severe weather.<\/p>\n \u201cEmergency services have responded quite well this time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Less than a fortnight after the Auckland Anniversary floods, Cyclone Gabrielle<\/a> devastated parts of Auckland and the North Island, claiming the lives of 11 people, including volunteer firefighters Dave van Zwanenberg and Craig Stevens, who were killed in a landslide at Muriwai.<\/p>\nClockwise from top left: David Young, Daniel Newth, David Lennard and Daniel Miller all died during flooding on January 27, 2023 as heavy rain swept the Auckland region.<\/p>\n
Cars flooded at Wairau Valley during the Auckland Anniversary storm.<\/p>\n
Brendon and Steph Deacon continue to battle Auckland Council over their home on Pinotage Place, Huapai, three years on from the Auckland Anniversary floods. Photo \/ Hayden Woodward<\/p>\n
Brendon and Steph Deacon have moved out of their home following an exhausting battle with Auckland Council. Photo \/ Hayden Woodward<\/p>\n
An artist’s impression of the new wetland proposed by the council\u2019s Healthy Waters division on the land currently occupied by the Takapuna Golf Course, showing it in a flooded state.<\/p>\n
One of the slips on Scenic Drive, pictured before a repair. Photo \/ Auckland Transport<\/p>\n
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown says he and the council have learned a lot and are now better prepared for emergency events.<\/p>\n