Auckland floods clean-up: Volunteers gather to help out

Hundreds of volunteers are gathering in Tāmaki Makaurau's Starling Park this morning to help clean up flood-damaged property.

The Student Volunteer Army is hosting the Big Clean Up - with helpers sent out to clear, tidy or clean for people affected by the floods.

Auckland president Jake Parsons said more than 1400 volunteers had signed up and some had already been out in the community this week.

So far volunteers had helped clear out 80 homes and had done dozens of welfare checks, Parsons said.

Today's volunteers would be sent to the hardest-hit areas, mainly in Rānui, wider West Auckland and Mount Roskill, he said.

The founder of the Student Volunteer Army said today is their largest gathering for a disaster outside of Christchurch.

Sam Johnson created the charity after the 2011 Christchurch Earthquakes to get students involved in cleaning up the city.

Community leader Michael Alofa said he hoped the volunteers would also identify needy families who had been reluctant to ask for help.

"It's about encouraging our young volunteers here this morning to, whilst they're out there helping families, do lend an ear and a shoulder and encourage our Maori and our Pacific families that are in need to come to the welfare centre out west."

Local MPs, councillors and community groups are also helping with today's clean-up, Alofa said.

Student Volunteer Army chief executive Jana Hood said the volunteers would also check on people previously spoken to.

"We have a couple of streets that we've identified that have been hit relatively hard, we have door knocked in some of these areas, so we're going back just to make sure that they did get access to the services that they needed.

"We have a list of alternative services that we can offer if those services weren't meeting their needs."

Many community groups had also turned out to help, Hood said.

Fewer staying in Auckland Civil Defence Centres, Red Cross says

Meanwhile, the Red Cross says it is pleasing to see the number of people staying in Auckland Civil Defence Centres slowly decrease.

The Red Cross says it is pleasing to see the number of people staying in Auckland Civil Defence Centres slowly decrease.

Auckland Emergency Management says a week on from the floods, more than 3300 households had requested assistance for accommodation, waste disposal and information.

Red Cross spokesperson Jackie Bubb said the numbers of people in centres was dropping every day.

Last Wednesday, there were 49 people at the Kelston Centre, but by Friday it had dropped to 31 people, she said.

The attention was turning to helping people find the assistance they needed once they returned home, or went into alternative accommodation, Bubb said.

"We've been providing evacuees shelter overnight, we've set up stretchers and bedding so that people have a safe place to sleep, we've been providing psycho-social supports, just in the last day or two we've started doing outreach so checking in on people's welfare in the community."

Auckland Emergency Management closed a Civil Defence centre last night, but two others and three Community Support Hubs are still open.

Auckland Emergency Management deals with thousands of requests for assistance

Auckland Emergency Management has released some initial figures on its flooding response.

Close to 900 households asked about emergency accommodation and more than 3300 had requested assistance as of Friday.

In figures released a week on from the floods, Auckland Emergency Management says 1940 flood-impacted vehicles had been picked up.

Five-hundred tonnes of flood-related waste has been taken to landfill, from 118 skips across the city.

There were still 50 properties without power but all have had their water restored.

Nearly 4500 rapid building assessments had taken place and 26 road closures remained.

Councillor Sharon Stewart said it had been heartening to see people coming from across the country to help Aucklanders with the response and recovery.