Clean-up starts after flash floods
AUTHORITIES in New Zealand’s biggest city Auckland began mopping up on Saturday, a day after torrential rains brought flooding and evacuations, shutting airports and forcing organisers to cancel a scheduled concert by Elton John.
A state of emergency remained in place in the city of around 1.6 million people on New Zealand’s north island as the rains eased after causing flooding in the North, Northwest and West.
Auckland Emergency Management - part of the city’s council, said daylight had revealed the first “true understanding” of the impact of the storm, caused by warm air descending from the tropics which sparked heavy rain and thunderstorms.
“Auckland was clobbered on Friday – Auckland’s wettest day on record – and today (yesterday) we start the clean-up,” the agency’s duty controller Andrew Clark said in a statement, urging caution for residents returning home to survey flood damage.
“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,” he said.
Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty tweeted that he and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins would visit Auckland
“to assess the damage from this event”.
The nation’s weather forecaster said while heavy rain had eased, another period of downpours was possible.
Showers were “dotted around Auckland” with some heavy west of the city, Auckland Emergency Management tweeted, while warning residents to “stay safe” amid the crisis.