Jan 29 (Portal) – New Zealand’s death toll from heavy rain rose to four on Sunday as flash floods and landslides in the North Island continued for a third day.
Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, has been battered since Friday and remains in a state of emergency. The country’s weather forecaster, MetService, warned of worse weather for the North Island on Sunday and Monday. Heavy rains could also cause surface and flash flooding, it said.
“We know there is potential for more adverse weather tonight,” Rachel Kelleher, controller at Auckland Emergency Management, told reporters.
The state of emergency is spreading across much of the North Island, with the Waitomo district, some 220 km (140 miles) from Auckland, declaring a state of emergency late Saturday.
A man who was swept away on Friday in Onewhero, a rural village about 70 km (40 miles) south of Auckland, has been confirmed dead, police said.
“The most terrible thing is that we lost lives,” said Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni in Auckland, a city of 1.6 million people.
Climate change is causing episodes of heavy rain to become more frequent and intense in New Zealand, although the impact varies by region. Climate Secretary James Shaw on Saturday pointed to the link to climate change when he tweeted his support for those affected by the floods.
Police said on Sunday they were assisting with traffic management and road closures in the Waitomo district after heavy rains caused “numerous slips, flooding and road damage”.
The nearby Bay of Plenty was also experiencing “widespread flooding,” police said, as well as a landslide that knocked down a house and threatened neighboring properties.
Thousands of properties were left without power while hundreds were without water, authorities said.
Still, Air New Zealand would resume international flights to and from Auckland on Sunday noon (2300 GMT on Saturday), a spokesman said.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, less than a week in office, flew by helicopter over Auckland on Saturday and toured homes affected by flooding. He described the impact of the flood on the city as “unprecedented” in recent memory.
People have made more than 2,000 calls for help and 70 evacuations around Auckland – the country’s largest city – due to the flooding, the New Zealand Herald reported on Saturday.
Reporting by Sam McKeith; Edited by Josie Kao, Edwina Gibbs and William Mallard
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