Often when disaster strikes, the community responds. This is happening all over the damaged parts of the North Island; communities coming together doing extraordinary things as they endeavour to recover from what mother nature has thrown at us over the past few weeks. Close to home at Sunnynook – a local area hit hard in the flood of Friday January 27th – the community has shown considerable resilience. This resilience has come through leadership. Channel Mag’s Aidan Bennett talked to Reilly Brown, a Sunnynook local who stepped up to play a big role in the community’s response.

Reilly Brown and his family – that includes five kids – live on the northern edges of Sunnynook Park and are very involved in the community. He’s a coach at the Glenfield Greyhounds Rugby League Club that has its base at the park. He spent the best part of a decade in the Navy mainly working in the catering area. His most recent role before leaving the Navy was as a divisional officer working in the welfare and career progression space. These days he runs a hospitality company and is also a Naval Reservist – they call on him if he’s needed.
On that very wet Friday Reilly first got involved in flood efforts by helping his neighbour whose home was being flooded. As the rain came down, he realised things were getting serious.
As most will know, Sunnynook Park has been redeveloped in recent years to play a part in preventing flooding. On Friday January 27th it flooded and overflowed – the rain was just too much despite the best efforts of city planners and experts. But locals believe the park did perform well, helping to avoid a larger problem. Reilly Brown believes that was the case.
On the Saturday members of the Sunnynook Community came together for a meeting as volunteers at the Community Centre. Reilly Brown was at that meeting called via Facebook by Sunnynook Community Centre manager Bronwyn Bound and Devonport-Takapuna Local Board member and Sunnynook local Melissa Powell, two local leaders who’ve played big parts in the flood recovery.
“Reilly was a Sunnynook community asset we didn’t know we had,” explained Melissa Powell. “On the Saturday after the floods, a few community members sat around a table and began to assess the damage and triage the need. To be honest, we were overwhelmed with the task ahead of us. Then, in walked Reilly. His experience in the military and emergency relief was invaluable. The Sunnynook Flood Response was rolled out so well because of Reilly’s leadership and experience.”
Bronwyn Bound says Reilly’s involvement gave everyone added confidence. "When Riley walked through the door to volunteer and said he had previous experience with assisting communities in an emergency, we all visibly relaxed and realised we could do this."
As a member of the armed forces Reilly had been involved with similar incidents before. He was at Lyttleton when the Christchurch earthquake struck and was in the devastated city during that harrowing initial recovery period. He was deployed to Kaikoura on HMNZS Canterbury after the earthquake there. He says those experiences, along with his training, provided him with an understanding of how to manage such a crisis.
“Our first priority in the plan was the welfare of the people,” says Reilly Brown. “Accommodation – a dry place to stay, food and clothing. We would have had around 50 volunteers on Saturday and Sunday who just door-knocked to check on people. From that work we could identify what was needed to assist. A spreadsheet of all the homes was created to manage the process. As well as homes in Sunnynook, homes in neighbouring suburbs like Totaravale and Unsworth were also included.”
“The second part of the plan was devised to help affected residents to get their homes sorted. I have been astounded by the generosity of local North Shore people who have come to help, donated things and have supplied labour, trailers, utes, vans and trucks that have taken items to the dump.”
On day four the Glenfield Greyhounds Rugby League Club became the local base for donated clothing, and right through the Sunnynook Community Centre served as the HQ for the recovery efforts and was where food was provided along with welfare relief.
“Melanie and Bronwyn worked overtime, using all their contacts to get action from all angles,” adds Reilly Brown. “They whipped up volunteers, local churches helped to cook meals, Countdown supplied food for meals – it was astounding.”
This community-led phase carried on for a full week, seven days from Saturday through until the Friday. Help then started to arrive from the authorities.
Reilly acknowledged the support of Auckland Councillor Richard Hills in making things happen. The mayor Wayne Brown visited, as did National Party leader Christopher Luxon and local MP Simon Watts and Devonport-Takapuna Local Board chair Toni van Tonder. The mayor, councillor Hills and chair van Tonder held a press conference at the Sunnynook Community Centre.
“The biggest thing is the community showed resilience and got together,” explains Reilly Brown, when asked about his thoughts on the flood response. “Most of the work was done in that first week without emergency support. The community came together to make it work.”
The work of Reilly Brown, Bronwyn Bound, Melissa Powell and all the others at Sunnynook was due to be celebrated with a Community Dinner being held at the Community Centre in late February. The aim was to share flood stories and enjoy a meal together. They certainly deserved it. Well done Sunnynook!