Before the devastation caused by Cyclone Gabrielle, another severe weather event caused major flooding, slips and property damage in Auckland.

In response, we sent a team of six Building Services staff to help out our friends and colleagues in Auckland.

The staff, all qualified rapid property assessors, spent a week in Auckland helping assess the condition of people’s homes damaged by the flooding in our country’s biggest city.

There was no significant disruption to our work here in Dunedin, but we thought it was important to help out our friends in the north.

The team received a wonderful thank you from the Auckland City Council Team Leader Specialist Field Surveying. He noted "their experience, input and organisational skills in disaster response situations was invaluable".

Now, following the even more widespread damage caused by Cyclone Gabrielle, we have a second team on stand-by, ready to help out again as soon as we get the call.

Photo caption: DCC staff on arrival at Auckland Airport are (from left to right) Ray Bremer, Mark McLay, Ricky Berland, Grant Sutton, Joe Fitzsimmons and Cam Allum.