Auckland has been lashed by rain and wind once again, turning streets into rivers, leaving motorists stranded on the motorway and adding to the woes of an already saturated city.
Residents claim much of the damage was predictable, with complaints about blocked drains and unstable trees going unchecked by council.
Houses on Mount Albert's Wairere Avenue were submerged for the second time in less than a week.
The city's fire crews were deployed to help pump water out of backyards - Balmoral station officer Brett Goodhue has had his work cut out for him since Friday.
"This morning, we've been going to a lot of flooding calls pretty similar to Friday night - a lot of people stuck in houses, trapped in cars, flooded basements, flooded roads," he said.
Several Wairere Avenue properties were in knee-deep water when fire crews arrived.
After about an hour of pumping, that was reduced to about ankle-height.
Residents Greig Brash and Chiara Gaggeri were trapped inside most of the morning, with a waist-deep moat effectively forming around their house.
Brash said he had previously made a complaint to Auckland Council about a blocked drain on the street, which had caused significant flooding in his garden.
However, he said no action had been taken.
"The main obstacle this morning was physically getting out," Brash said.
"The water's been getting pumped for at least three hours, and it's only now at a state where you could sensibly get in or out. Before that, if you wanted to get out, you would have to wade."
The couple were renting but would now have to look for a new home, as theirs had been deemed uninhabitable.
A Mount Albert neighbour and plumber Damien Tebbutt was going from house to house helping out with the pumping effort where needed.
He said at one Mount Eden property he visited, the basement had been completely submerged.
"As I walked through, the watermark was above my head.
"Their neighbours had a couple of bedrooms and a bathroom and a rumpus room underneath; that's all destroyed, and there was nothing they could do."
It was not just the rain causing problems.
Around the corner on Woodward Road, a large oak tree crashed down on a block of flats in the early morning as residents got ready for work.
Kathan Panchal, one of those inside, said it sounded like a crack of thunder, and blocked him from exiting through the front door.
"I was making breakfast - a Milo - and we heard a loud thud," he said.
"Then there was a cracking of branches, and we knew that something had fallen.
"We opened the front door and the tree was right in front and on the roof."
Panchal said he had raised concerns in the past about the tree which leaned over his property from a council-owned walkway.
However, he said the council had not taken any action.
"The damage is done now; the tree has to be removed.
"Hopefully the council responds quickly to other claims - we don't want anyone else to be in this boat."
Arborists on the scene said the tree would take all day to remove.
In Sandringham, crews pumped water out of Eden Park once again.
Driveways in the neighbourhood were completely submerged and people were wading through sewage-contaminated water.
Across the bridge in Devonport, the local golf course was transformed into a lake.
In Wesley, many houses overlooked lawns that more closely resembled swimming pools.
Kannan Thiru said after waking multiple times throughout the night to check for flooding, he finally woke this morning to police officers knocking on his door.
"About 7.30am or 8am, outside the house, the water was about up to the knee.
"They said it wasn't safe to stay here, so we went to leave the house."
Thiru got his family - including a child using a wheelchair - into the car and up to higher ground.
When he returned later in the day to gather some belongings, Auckland Council officers were assessing the area and placed a yellow sticker on his door, meaning he would have limited access to his house.
However, Thiru said he had already booked a motel in Parnell for the next three nights, saying he wanted the peace of mind.
"We don't want to start every morning waking in the middle of the night, looking around and then settling down.
"That's not going to work for us, since I have a sick son, and we just need to be outside the house."
Thiru said his area had a drainage problem that he had been raising with council for years.
A nearby sign stated: "Please beware this pathway can flood during rainy periods, and a long term solution is being investigated. Thank you, Auckland Council."
However, Thiru said this solution had taken too long to materialise.
Once he had a chance to rest and regroup, he said he would be among many Aucklanders questioning what could have been done earlier to prevent the worst of the damage from these floods.
