Many of Auckland Council’s non-essential facilities that were closed to support Auckland Emergency Management’s response to Cyclone Gabrielle, will begin reopening within the next two days.
The council’s early childhood centres will reopen from 9am, Wednesday 15 February, while some libraries, customer service centres, and pools and leisure centres will open from midday, Thursday 16 February.
Auckland Council Chief Executive Jim Stabback says the organisation’s focus continues to be on helping the most vulnerable communities who have been impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle.
“This has been a tough few days for many Aucklanders, compounded with the impacts of January’s flooding, and I want to extend my sympathies to anyone who has been affected.
“At Auckland Council we are doing all we can to support affected communities, and many of our staff from our libraries, early childhood, leisure and contact centres have been deployed over the last couple of days to where they have been needed most.
“Starting tomorrow our redeployed staff members will be able to resume their usual jobs, and our early childhood centres will reopen tomorrow morning to help ease the burden for parents and caregivers who may be trying to juggle the demands of their work with looking after their whānau,” says Mr Stabback.
“Other council facilities will begin to reopen from midday Thursday. Before visiting one of our facilities please visit the Interruptions to Service and Facilities page on the council website, as some services and centres will have staggered openings depending on the individual circumstances of the staff and centres.
“Some of our facilities are also still being used as Civil Defence Centres and Shelters, for the latest on these please visit the Auckland Emergency Management website,” says Mr Stabback.
Auckland Council’s regional park tracks are closed, to allow staff time to assess the damage of these tracks from Cyclone Gabrielle. Please don’t visit our regional parks at this time, and be aware of flooding, muddy conditions and potential tree damage in local parks to keep yourself safe.
For further updates on our park conditions visit OurAuckland.
Kerbside collections to resume on Wednesday
With Auckland’s most severe weather due to subside from tonight, rubbish, recycling and food scrap collections will resume from Wednesday.
The normal collection cycle will apply, which means that some residents will have to wait until early next week for their usual rubbish collection, and a fortnight for their usual recycling collection.
If your collection was cancelled and your rubbish is unsafe to store, you can take it to one of the 15 participating Auckland waste transfer stations free of charge when it is safe to do so. Before heading to a transfer station, make sure to check the opening hours in this information sheet [PDF].
The collection of flood-damaged items will restart from tomorrow, Wednesday 15 February. If you have already lodged a request for assistance, or collection of your flood-damaged items from the kerbside, we have you on our list and we will get to you as soon as it is safe for us to do so. We appreciate your patience as we continue to work through those requests.
How our teams have been responding to the impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle
Our building inspectors, stormwater staff, arborists, and coastal team, have been on the ground helping affected communities from the damage of Cyclone Gabrielle explains Mr Stabback.
“Our coastal team has been completing rapid assessments of coastal damage today, and our stormwater staff have been prioritising the clearance of streams to prevent further flooding. Arborists are working throughout the region to respond to hundreds of tree-related callouts, the large majority of which are deemed as critical. Already this year we have had 1400 tree requests for service due to weather events.
“Our building inspections teams are on the ground assessing the impacts of the cyclone on buildings and land, including at some at-risk homes that were red and yellow placarded during the January flooding.
“More will be known about the scale of damage on homes and the need for new rapid assessments as our staff are able to gain access to the affected areas,” says Mr Stabback.
There may continue to be impacts on existing non-urgent building inspections bookings as we deploy staff to affected areas, and customers with existing bookings that will be affected will be contacted by our Regulatory Services team to discuss rebooking inspections for a later date.
If you need help and support during the emergency, please head to the Auckland Emergency Management website.
