Just letting people know, this a long post and there is no artwork!
It's been on heck of a week here. Auckland City has been declared a state of emergency since we had 16 inches of rain fall in one day!
We've had some extremely heavy and consistent rain for the last four days. West Auckland, which is the area I live in, has been hit the worst. My home is up off the ground by around 4 feet, and I live on the side of a hill, so the water doesn't stop here, it just keeps running past me and down the hill. Suburbs very close to me have been hit very hard, houses and cars completely under water. Tree's have come down, water pipes broken by the slips, so I was without water until last night. The water pipe has been fixed, but the water pressure is very low. I have had to go and buy bottled water from the supermarket. Luckily I still had power. I haven't been able to do any laundry, or shower, and have had to tip buckets of rain water down the toilet to flush it. It's been really stressful, but I am lucky because my home was not damaged. These next photo's are of two slips just up the road. There are houses just above this slip! I had seen it two days ago and it wasn't this big. Over night the tree's came down across the road, but had been moved by the time I took these photos. These photos were taken while it was raining so the quality is not that good.
sThese next two photos are of another slip which is just across the ride from the first slip in the photos above. This slip goes down a steep bank and yes there are houses down there too! I was standing on a foot path above the slip to get these photo's.
What you can't see in these two photos is, the slip goes under the concrete footpath and part way under the road! I didn't know this until I was taking the photo's and had a look. I am surprised the road had not been closed to all traffic. They had a machine down there carefully moving dirt away and then reinforcing the slip so it doesn't come down and take the houses out. The photo below shows where the bank has come away from the foot path. This is where I discovered that the slip had gone under the footpath and road. Once I took this last photo I quickly walked away from the slip, not wanting the path and or road to suddenly collapse under me.
I was hanging over the handrail to get these photos. ON Friday we had 16 inches of rain in 24 hours, this is why there were floods everywhere. Just so much rain in one day, and the rain continued for the next four days. It's still raining today, which is Tuesday. Elton John was here for two concerts, however both concerts were cancelled due to the rain and floods. On the news it showed a bus with 50 passengers and the water was up to the bus seats! Everyone on the bus had their feet up on the seat. The rain came so suddenly, and was so consistent and heavy that it took people by surprise. Cars were stranded on the motorway and caught in sudden flash flooding. Creeks that are normally just a relaxing trickle became dangerous raging rivers, taking out cars, houses and anything in it's way. There are multiple road closures near me, and slips everywhere. I hope may water is running ths morning, it came back on late last night. I have now submitted a 'medical water dependency' form with Water Care, because I need to have water as I have medications I have to take, four times every day. This means if the water is ever cut off again, Water Care will bring me bottled water for free.
This was another issue, I had to get to the supermarket by us to get water a couple of times. The problem was, not all the uses were running, and I wasn't aware of this. I waited, in the rain, for almost an hour and buses just didn't arrive. They have temporarily moved the bus stop further up the road because of roadworks on my road. There is no shelter, you just stand in a certain spot on the side of the road, and flag the bus down when it comes. I'll get on to the road works next!
My road is being dug up to put new water pipes in. It's loud and noisy and it is six houses away! They have been slowly digging the trenches to put the pipes in, since early January this year. They will be outside my place in around 2 weeks. I've been down there taking photos of what's happening. I was approached by the Project Manager and asked if I would email him some of my photo's. Of course I said 'yes'! They start work at 7 in the morning and finish at 6.30 pm every day except Sunday. Because of all the machinery working, I have to wear one of those high vis coats. Luckily I already had one because of all the car crash photography I do. I don't want to become part of the action!The photo below shows how big the pipes are they are putting in under the road. They are massive, and are made of steel. I took this photo before all this rain and flooding came. ON Saturday they had the ire brigade pumping water out of one of the trenches. It had almost filled with rain water and water from the storm water drain that was near by. The trenches are about 6 feet deep, so you can imagine how much rain we've had, and are still getting.
These last three photos show the huge steel frame they put in the trench before they put the pipe in. This frame protects the guys who are working in the trench and will keep them safe if the walls of the trench collapses. Those frames a huge and look SO solid!
I can't photograph the trench because its too dangerous to get that close. You can see how deep the trench is in the photo below by the guy who is standing in the highest part of the trench. IT's about two foot deeper than the guy.
With everything that's been going on, the floods, the road works, I have not done any artwork! But I got notification today that my Lavinia Stamps order from a couple of weeks ago has now on it's way to me! LS have not been able to send overseas orders because of a cyber attack. Thank you to those who has stayed and read this entire, long post! Thanks for dropping by, have a SUNSHINE day! Remember to always be your authentic self, and shine right each and every day!
