Deaths feared in New Zealand holiday park landslip
Ben McKay |
Multiple deaths, including children, are feared in a landslip at a New Zealand holiday park after unprecedented rainfall.
Land gave way above the Mount Maunganui Beachside Holiday Park at around 9:30 on Thursday morning, crushing campervans and a shower/toilet block.
A rescue operation is underway, with officials confirming several people are unaccounted for.
The precise number has not been shared, though police say it is in the “single figures”.
Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell described the event as a “tragedy”, telling reporters that “parents and the husband of some of the people that we’re currently trying to rescue” were in the campground.
The landslip followed Tauranga’s heaviest single day of rainfall on record, with 270mm falling in the 24 hours to 9am.
Alister Hardy, a fisherman who was nearby, told the NZ Herald said he heard “rolling thunder and cracking of trees”, before looking up and seeing “the whole hillside gave way”.
“There were people running and screaming and I saw people get bowled. There are people trapped,” he said.
Fire and Emergency NZ spokesman William Pike said the first people on the scene heard calls for help from inside the landslip.
“Members of the public … tried to get into the rubble and did hear some voices,” he said.
“Our initial fire crew arrived and had the same were able to hear the same.”
Search and rescue experts made a call to pull back from the slip, given the treacherous conditions.
Mount Maunganui is a tourist hotspot, hosting one of New Zealand’s most popular beaches and well-loved walking trails.
The big wet extended well beyond the Bay of Plenty, with huge swathes of North Island drenched on Wednesday and overnight into Thursday.
Meteorologists MetService issued a rare red weather warning for a “threat to life” in several regions.
In Northland and Tairawhiti, towns including Oakura have suffered huge flooding, with some communities cut off.
There are also fears for a man in his 40s swept away in his car in the swollen Mahurangi River, north of Auckland, on Wednesday, while a passenger was able to scramble to safety.
Another couple in Welcome Bay, near Tauranga, were also rescued after a landslip hit their house, with one seriously injured.
The red weather warnings issued by MetService are reserved for only the most concerning events.
People have been trapped on rooftops in Tairawhiti, where Mark Law – the helicopter pilot involved in rescue efforts after the deadly 2019 Whakaari-White Island volcanic eruption – is again helping out.
Photos of the region on social media show vast flooding, with forestry slash among the debris.
Thousands of people, in Northland, Coromandel, Bay of Plenty and Tairawhiti, were also left without power from the storm and flooding.
This week’s alert is the first rain-related red warning to hit the same area since Cyclone Gabrielle in early 2023, killing 11 people and causing $A8 billion in damage.
Two search and rescue experts were among those killed as they scoured a property in Auckland’s west coast.
AAP
