West Auckland residents dealt with an all too familiar reality yesterday after being hit yet again by severe weather.
Fast and ferocious flooding swamped the area and in the space of a few hours roads and homes were inundated again.
Many had experienced multiple bouts of flooding in the last two years, and some continued to call for managed retreat from at risk areas.
Kintara Drive in the West Auckland suburb of Massey was hit particularly hard again yesterday.
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Resident Matt had to perform a rescue operation when a car was stranded in the floodwaters.
"I winched him out and then towed him back around to the school, one of the school's relievers had the car. I don't think she's got insurance either, so hopefully I've saved it."
The water was lapping around the steering wheel and was rising quickly, he said.
Residents said yesterday's rain was not as bad as previous floods. But for some of them, it was the fifth time they had been hit since 2021.
Oakley Creek overflowed in Auckland's Walmsley Park, Mt Albert flooding properties nearby. Photo: RNZ / Finn Blackwell
Advocacy group West Auckland is Flooding's chairperson Lyall Carter said people were over it.
"People are done eh, people are pretty over it... some people may think: 'Well those people were out of their homes'.
"Imagine how you would feel... this isn't just bricks and mortar, this is memories, this a family place... and we've got to really hold that in mind."
It was a tough situation for some families in West Auckland who were still paying mortgages or rent on properties they could not live in, Carter said.
"I couldn't think of families more at risk than those that have been impacted and have been displaced due to floods."
He urged the government to take bold action on managed retreat.
Rebuilding houses in flood prone areas equated to fighting a battle against nature, one which residents would not win, he said.
"We've got to think future. I've got a one-and-a-half year old, we've got to think about her generation. How are we setting up her generation to hopefully be Westies, and to live in West Auckland without the threat of floods ever hanging over their minds?"
Ranui resident Wasima Shaikh managed to stay dry yesterday, but said she dropped her kids at a friend's house because she was worried about the rain.
"We thought that if it might flood or something... just for safety reasons."
Shaikh was still dealing with the fallout of the Auckland Anniversary weekend floods, Her carpet and insulation had to be ripped up and her heat pump was damaged.
She said it was not an ideal situation heading into winter.
"I'm worried about June, July the real winter time, like what's gonna happen?"
West Auckland residents said they felt they had been left dealing with yet another round of torrential rain, and bracing for the next one.