Firefighter on jetski rescues woman up tree

A volunteer firefighter rode his jetski through floodwaters to rescue a woman who had climbed a tree to escape her sinking car near Tapanui.

Dion O’Leary said he received reports that a woman was stuck in a tree about 5km outside Tapanui at 7.24am yesterday.

He drove to the scene in his ute but quickly realised they would not be able to reach the woman.

‘‘We decided the best way would be for me to turn around and go home and get my jetski,’’ O’Leary said.

‘‘I thought it’d be parked up for the winter but it came in handy.

‘‘We didn’t have to go too far [into the floodwaters]. It was just sort of over a fence and she was in the tree, just above the water line.’’

O’Leary helped the woman down from the tree about 8.15am, about an hour after she climbed the tree, and drove her to safety on the jetski.

Senior Constable John Mawhinney, of Tapanui, said the woman was lucky to be alive.

She had driven her BMW around barriers that had been put in place to stop people entering the floodwaters, he said.

‘‘The lesson to take out of this is that people should take notice of the barriers,’’ Mawhinney said.

‘‘She was very lucky that she managed to get her cellphone out and call for help.’’

The woman was shaken by the incident and had been taken to Gore Hospital with symptoms of hypothermia, he said.

Her car was still underwater last night and only a nearby farmer’s fence had stopped it being washed away, he said.

‘‘By the time I got there I could only see the roof of the car – that’s how deep the water was.’’