Body found in flooded creek
Searchers discovered the body of a missing man beneath his submerged four-wheel drive in a Coromandel creek yesterday morning.
A search was launched for the 72-year-old local man after his Holden was discovered empty and submerged in the Tairua River, off Hikuai School Rd, on Sunday evening. About 8am yesterday his body was found under the vehicle in waist-deep water.
The semi-retiree was reported missing after leaving a friend’s house – he was thought to be travelling home to his farm block, which borders the river at the base of the Pinnacles. Heavy rain hammered the peninsula on Sunday, raising river levels.
Those who knew the man said he lived across a concrete ford that crosses the swift-flowing upper reaches of the river.
Senior Sergeant Simon Cherry said police were treating the death as a road fatality.
Meanwhile, as Stuff squelched over the sodden carpet of a flooded Rotorua residence, Jenny Pollard pointed to the books in her grandson’s bedroom.
‘‘All their books and their treasures, gone.’’ The floodwaters also swept their caravan from its park outside, depositing it 100 metres down the road.
Speaking outside their mudsoaked garage, Elliott Pollard said he was gobsmacked yesterday when ‘‘standing at the window watching the caravan float down the road’’.
‘‘It’s unreal to see it now when it was underwater yesterday.’’
Minister of Civil Defence Kris Faafoi was also at the Pollards.
‘‘It’s going to be a big job for these families to get back on their feet. A big clean-up job,’’ he said.
Faafoi praised the Civil Defence and emergency staff.
He said the extent of the flooding took people by surprise.
Don Newport was surveying a flooded garage. It wasn’t rain – it was a solid wall of water – that’s how he described Sunday’s deluge. ‘‘At 3pm it was normal. By
4pm we were under water.’’ Newport was able to find a small silver lining.
‘‘The beer fridge tipped over, but none of the beer got broken.’’
A state of emergency declared on Sunday night after more than
20 homes flooded, remained in force yesterday in Ngongotaha.
According to Niwa, Rotorua had its wettest hour on record, for any day in any month, with
51.8mm of rain falling between
10am and 11am.