An extreme storm struck the city of Auckland on Monday night, causing serious damage to Westhaven Marina, boats and property. According to the local media Newshub, up to 75 boats were damaged at the central marina. Repairing works will likely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, Mayor Phil Goff said.
Auckland has experienced two consequent nights of storms with a wild mixture of lightning and heavy rain starting from Sunday, June 11, causing significant damage to buildings, wharfs and boats. Some citizens even shared pictures of 5-cm-large hailstones that fell on Monday.
The second night of storms smashed Auckland's waterfront, overturning boats and throwing containers, pylons and cars into the harbour. One of the 75 damaged boats, was a flipped-over 13-tonne catamaran, along with several yachts torn from their moorings. NZHerald reports, vehicles were swept into the ocean and a yacht was struck by lightning.
Photo: Hayden Woodward
Damage has been also done to some marina infrastructure which was being isolated and checked. ‘The large amount of flotsam and debris in and around the inner harbour remains a significant hazard to navigation and this will likely be the case until it is all recovered,’ coastguard duty officer Hemi Manaena said in a statement.
Lion Foundation Rescue and Trillian Rescue Alpha, Coastguard Rescue Vessels from Mechanics Bay were tasked to respond and assist the police with securing vessels and debris adrift, and to undertake welfare checks with impacted vessels to ensure all personnel were accounted for. Luckily, reports so far indicate that no mariners were harmed during this event.
Still, the witness, who was at Princess Wharf, said it looked like there were a lot of emergency vehicles at the scene, presuming there might have been people injured. Other sources say, a staff member at Wallace Investments was injured on Monday night when a shipping container blew onto their vehicle, but further discharged from the hospital.
Photo: CHRIS MCKEEN/STUFF
"Due to debris from the storm, services across the harbour Tuesday morning were operating at reduced speeds and keeping wakes down as advised by the harbourmaster," chief executive Mike Horne said.
On Tuesday morning, Mayor Phil Goff visited a large event venue The Cloud located on Queen's Wharf, as it lost part of its roof in Sunday's storm, while Shed 10 that lost its roller doors. The mayor concluded, it would cost NZD hundreds of thousands dollars, to restore the objects.
Westhaven Marina, Auckland. Photo source: istock.com
Meanwhile, one of the most extreme storms causing damage to marinas took place in Italian Rappallo in November 2018 and in 2017, when a category 4 Hurricane Irma caused severe damage to the Caribbean and Florida region.
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January 9, 2025
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January 9, 2025
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January 9, 2025
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January 8, 2025
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January 8, 2025