New Zealand: Three killed in Auckland after record rainfall, flash floods

New Zealand’s biggest city, Auckland is reeling from torrential rains and flash floods on Saturday (January 28), and the policehave confirmed thatthree people were killed in separate flood-related incidents. This comes a day after record rainfall and flashfloods prompted the announcement of a state of emergency, evacuations, and closure of the city’s airport which is also the largest one in New Zealand.

The police have said they were still responding to a high number of calls from residents about “weather-related incidents”. The city of 1.6 million people on the country’s north island witnessed some relief as the rains slowed down after theyflooded most of the north, northwest and west parts on Friday. Auckland recorded 249 mm of rain in the span of 24 hours which marked the wettest day and month when compared to the previous 161 mm record.

New Zealand Police found the bodies of two menin flood waters in separate incidents in a northern suburb, while search is underway for another man who they believe has been swept away in the southern part of the city. A third death related to the flooding was confirmedby the police, on Saturday afternoon (local time)who said thatFire and Emergency workers found theperson who was previouslyunaccounted forafter a landslide hit a house in an inner suburb of Auckland, as per local media reports.

Meanwhile, the duty controller of Auckland’s Emergency Management (AEM) agency, Andrew Clark said that Saturday morning revealed the first “true understanding” of the impact of the storm, as per Reuters.

In a statement, AEM’s Clark urged caution for the city’s residents returning home to check the damage caused. He added, “We won't start to get a good idea of numbers affected until later today and, even then, this will take time, with information still coming in and many assessments to complete.”

According to media reports, the flash flood turned many of Auckland’s roads into rivers on Friday (January 27) with ankle-length water on several terminals of the Auckland Airport. The authorities have also said they expect operations to resume by midday on Saturday but before that, there will be no flights in or out of the airport, reported AFP.

In a statement, Air New Zealand said that the airport was scheduled to resume operations from its international terminal from 5:00 pm (local time) and at least 12 of the airlines’ international flights over Auckland were diverted overnight.

Furthermore, Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty took to Twitter and said New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins would visit Auckland on Saturday to “assess the damage”. Subsequently, Hipkins also took to the social media platform and said, “My travel to Auckland this morning has been delayed due to weather conditions. I’m continuing to monitor the situation from Wellington. Govt will provide as much help and support as we can.”

He also said the national crisis management centre in the capital city, was helping to coordinate the emergency response. Meanwhile, the AEM said, “We're not out of this yet. Heavy rain returns tomorrow”. Additionally, the New Zealand PMand Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown will also address the media about the"unprecedented weather event", said the AEM.

This comes after the country’s weather forecaster said that while heavy rains have eased, another period of downpours was possible on Sunday. According to media reports, more than 2,000 calls for assistance have been made to emergency services from across the city.

(With inputs from agencies)

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