As I write, there are people just one street away filling skips with the sodden contents of their garages, basements and ground floor rooms. The footpaths are lined with piles of ruined household items, while residents and neighbours pitch in to rip up carpets and sweep out sections.

These scenes are repeated all over this sprawling city of 1.6 million, which received roughly the equivalent of a month’s rain in just a few hours on Friday evening. There are four confirmed deaths, houses have been destroyed, the airport closed and flights cancelled, and evacuation centres have been activated. A state of emergency is in place all week.

Auckland gets plenty of rain, but no one has seen anything like this. As climate scientist James Renwick explains, there were several factors involved in a massive “atmospheric river” stalling over the top half of the North Island, but those aren’t the full explanation. “I am confident climate change contributed significantly to the incredible volume of rain that fell so quickly in Auckland this time,” he writes.

And, as urban planning expert Timothy Welch argues, given what we know about the future impact of climate change, Auckland (like many cities) must address its ageing infrastructure and also change the way new construction is designed. The concept of the “sponge city”, he suggests, is a good place to start.

For now, that’s also an apt description of Auckland as the massive clean-up begins.

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