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At least two people died and many more are missing landslide Flooded a house and tore apart a holiday East coast campgrounds New Zealand Thursday morning.
Search continues overnight at seaside holiday park mount maunganuiport, where landslide Crash onto campervans, tents and an amenity area.
Rescue teams at the camp said they initially heard cries for help under the rubble but found no more signs of life by late afternoon. Local media reported that the number of missing people was in “single digits”, including children.
Hours earlier, another landslide hit a home in the area’s Welcome Bay. The pair fled the house, but the bodies of two other people trapped inside were discovered hours later.
Landslide after days of heavy rain rain It is linked to a tropical weather system that brought heavy rainfall to much of the North Island.
New ZealandEmergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell said parts of the east coast were like “war zones”, with helicopters deployed to rescue families trapped on rooftops and a state of emergency declared in several areas.
“It’s a fluid and sensitive issue at the moment,” Mr Mitchell told Radio New Zealand. “Everyone is trying their best to find the best solution, but this is a very difficult and challenging situation.”
New Zealand Fire and Emergency Services said about 40 firefighters were working at the scene, including urban search and rescue teams and sniffer dogs, and the scene had all been evacuated. Two excavators were also deployed to help remove debris.
Fire and Emergency Commander William Pike said emergency services heard noises when they arrived shortly after the incident but were later forced to retreat due to the risk of further movement.
“Initially, when the first crew arrived, there were some signs of life,” he told local media. “But we withdrew personnel to ensure that the mistake did not expand further.”
Police said the number of people unaccounted for was believed to be in the “single digits,” but the exact number remained unclear because some campers left without notifying authorities.
Witnesses described chaotic scenes as the hillside collapsed. Australian tourist Sonny Worrall, who was swimming in a nearby hot spring, told local media he was nearly hit by a caravan.
“I heard rolling thunder and trees snapping,” he said. “The whole hillside collapsed. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.”
Mount Maunganui is one of the Bay of Plenty region’s most important landmarks. It is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists every month and is popular with international tourists and holidaying New Zealanders.
The landslide-hit campsite is at the foothills of Mount Maunganui, also known as Mauao, an extinct volcano that is both a popular tourist destination and a sacred site for Maori people.
Surrounded by white sand beaches, Mount Maunganui’s main beach is known as New Zealand’s best and also attracts visitors with its hot salt pools, which the local tourism board says have therapeutic properties.
Authorities said the Bay of Plenty region had its wettest day on record, with the nearby city of Tauranga receiving about 295 millimeters of rain in just over 30 hours, equivalent to two and a half months’ rainfall.
A local state of emergency has been declared in Northland, the Coromandel Peninsula, Terrawhiti, Hauraki and parts of the Bay of Plenty, with residents urged to evacuate low-lying areas and avoid all non-essential travel.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand said it had responded to more than 230 weather-related calls since Tuesday, including rescues from rooftops and flooded homes. In the east coast settlement of Punaluku, firefighters described homes submerged by mud, logging debris and floodwaters.
At least 8,000 homes remained without power Thursday, down from 16,000 earlier, and dozens of roads were closed because of the fires. flood and landslides.
Elsewhere in the North Island, Police are continuing to search for a 47-year-old man who was swept away On Wednesday he attempted to drive across a river near Warkworth. His wife told Radio New Zealand she was hopeful he would survive.
“I knew he had a strong, sensible personality,” she said, adding that he was a fisherman from his hometown in Kiribati and knew how to swim and dive.
In Papamoa, south of Mount Maunganui, two people were reported missing and one seriously injured after another landslide hit a home early Thursday.
Communities on the island also reported massive rescue operations, including a 94-year-old man rescued by neighbors from floodwaters in the Coromandel, and a woman rescued in a kayak as fast-moving water around her home rose to neck height.
New Zealand’s National Emergency Management Agency warned that more heavy rain was expected on Thursday, falling on already saturated ground, increasing the risk of more landslides, flooding and dangerous river conditions.
Scientists say the pattern of increasing rainfall is consistent with expectations of a warming climate.
“It now looks like every storm is going to bring an orange or red flood warning and destruction and misery somewhere in the country,” said James Renwick, a professor of climate science at Victoria University of Wellington. “Sadly, this is exactly what we would expect in a warmer climate with more moisture in the air.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the government was doing everything possible to support affected communities and praised the efforts of emergency personnel.
“The whole country is grateful to all those who are risking their lives to keep New Zealanders safe,” he said.