Lessons from the 2023 recovery: summary

Author:

Tāmaki Makaurau Recovery Office

Source:

Tāmaki Makaurau Recovery Office, Auckland Council

Publication date:

2026

Topics:

Environment ,People

Introduction

The Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods (27 January – 1 February 2023) and Cyclone Gabrielle (13 – 14 February 2023) triggered Auckland’s first large-scale recovery from a severe weather event. The Tāmaki Makaurau Recovery Office (‘the Recovery Office’) operated for over three years, coordinating support for people and communities, housing, and infrastructure. Key functions included information and advice, infrastructure repair, wellbeing support, iwi partnerships, and community-led recovery. The scope and scale of recovery fundamentally changed mid-2023, with the government announcement of a support scheme for impacted residential properties and further funding for infrastructure repairs and resilience improvements.

For many impacted whānau, Recovery Office services helped provide clarity, direction, and the emotional and financial support needed to take their next steps. Iwi and community groups were funded to develop their own recovery plans, building the local connections and understanding needed for people to move forward together.

In some cases, the support we could provide within the scope of our programmes was simply not enough to meet whānau needs, due to the scale of impacts, the presence of pre-existing vulnerabilities, the challenges, uncertainties and delays involved in standing up brand new recovery services in the aftermath of the storms, and the limitations of the Crown- and council-designed schemes. This was a difficult reality for whānau and for staff who needed to balance the immediate needs of impacted whānau with the wider responsibilities of the public sector.

By the end of the programme in 2034, total recovery costs are expected to exceed $2.5 billion, largely driven by helping people move out of harm’s way, and infrastructure repair and resilience improvements. These activities will leave a legacy of improved resilience for parts of the Auckland region but have come at a significant cost.

Recovering from the 2023 severe weather events in Tāmaki Makaurau has exposed both strengths and gaps in regional and national recovery systems. While recovery delivered meaningful outcomes, systemic improvements are needed to ensure faster, more coordinated, and more resilient future recovery operations. Recovery needs to evolve from a reactive function – effectively redesigned after every severe weather event – into a proactive, integrated system capability that is ready to roll out when needed. Discussion in the reports highlights how pre-event resilience measures and better system preparedness could strengthen future recovery efforts. This matters not only for future recovery operations, but also for Auckland’s broader resilience and adaptation efforts in an increasingly uncertain future.

About the reports

As we reach the end of our formal recovery period, it’s important to reflect on what we have learned and apply those lessons at all levels. The Recovery Office has published two lessons reports: Delivering Recovery which offers recommendations for operational improvements, and Unlocking Recovery which identifies strategic opportunities to strengthen recovery preparedness in Auckland and nationally. A third report, Together Auckland: Recovering from the 2023 Storms, gives a complete account of the entire recovery effort – what was decided, how it was delivered, the impact on our people, and what the legacy of the storms will be for Tāmaki Makaurau.

The findings in these reports are drawn from debriefs and reviews with staff, delivery partners, and governance groups. Although we draw on some community surveys and communications, the views of impacted whānau or the wider community have not been systematically canvassed in this lessons process. Further work to gather these perspectives would add further valuable insight into the impacts of the 2023 storms and the effectiveness, costs and benefits of the recovery.

Auckland’s recovery efforts centred on three main elements: people, homes, and infrastructure, so the reports are focused on these issues too. Future recoveries may centre on different aspects. Data in the reports provides the best information available as of 10 June 2026, noting that some recovery operations will continue for some time, and some financial information will change.

The reports, from the Group Recovery Manager, reflect Recovery Office experience and do not represent Auckland Council policy.

Auckland Council, June 2025