This weekend I finally organised my interview with local park ranger Geoff Calvert which will take place sometime next week. In preparation for the interview, I decided to explore the internet in search of articles relating to the Piha floods.
From what I can see, most of the news articles cover the flood that took place on the 3rd of February which seems to be the most serious flood of recent memory.
Here are some notes about the flood in February:
- Two people died after being swept away by the swollen river near Cascade Falls (Saxton, Chumko, 2018)
- The Metservice weather station recorded 27.5mm of rain at Piha between 5pm and 6pm that night (Henry, 2018).
- “Camp owner Peter Kruger said the water in the Kitekite Stream rose up within half an hour as high as his knees, and it was all gone again within another 40 minutes” (Henry, 2018).
- “On Glenesk Rd . . . 100 people were evacuated from their homes” (Henry, 2018).
- “A 150-meter stretch of Glen Esk Road was under two metres of water – up to the headlights of the fire truck trying to get through” (Henry, 2018).
I want to talk to Geoff about his experience that day and how he has coped with what happened. On a more general level, I want to ask him about the floods that have happened before and after the one in February and see if he has any interesting insights.
I know from personal experience that these floods happen fairly regularly and so I plan to investigate the environmental causes and impacts of such events.
Henry, D. (2018). Piha park ranger says Saturday’s floods are the worst he’s ever seen. Retrieved from https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11987865
Saxton, A., & Chumko, A. (2018). Two bodies found after people swept away by river in Waitakeres, evacuations in Piha. Retrieved from https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/101154989/three-people-swept-away-by-river-in-waitakere
