Hope and the devastation for some families with flooding in Auckland...

Whilst going on my irregular 5km walk, I came upon a lone red hibiscus flower on a neighbouring fence that I could help but take a picture of. It reminded me of the hope that there is with a single flower that more will blossom in time.

It's with sadness that I was able to witness some of the devastation that families have gone through the 'freak' storm that hit Auckland, within 24 hours, last Friday that left 3 people dead and 40+ homes written off with over 5000 homes somewhat affected from wet carpet to whole houses ripped off their foundations.

On many roads throughout my local area, there are large skip bins that evidence the tremendous toll that the freak weather had on families in communities. We have a local help centre that offers to support displaced families as some don't have liveable homes to go to or food on the table with livelihoods interrupted with some businesses going under.

It's so sad to see and so seemingly random as one house could be fine with no water damage at all and it's next door neighbour could be in dire straits. I've seen that bad drainage is a massive reason for flooding in many areas and also streams that have burst their banks.

What's so sad is that many children are also caught in this with the government calling on a week's deferment for schools to start Auckland wide but then changed their minds and allowed schools and Early Childhood centres to start if they were not affected.

Even my workplace has been affected with flooding and we have been encouraged to work from home until they are able to get everything sorted. This is a bit daunting as we are still recruiting but will see how it goes as this was a similar situation when COVID-19 struck.

Our classes have also been put back a week which gives us an extra week of getting things ready and also checking with potential students to see if they were at all affected by the floods and if they have been offered any help with their situation if needing attention.

All in all, I'm really encouraged by the support that's out their for out community peoples and families who have been affected. It's definitely not an easy time to be out of work or without a house with the cost of living soaring with inflation but there is hope, like the hibiscus flower, that there will be another day with many caring enough to lend a helping hand...