Elderly evacuated, tradies trapped in village flooding
60mm deluge ‘out of nowhere’ hammers Waihī Beach community over intense hour
Eleven elder housing units were evacuated and a group of tradies trapped due to floods at Waihī Beach. Emergency services were called to “widespread flooding” at the small beachside town as “multiple evacuations” took place yesterday afternoon.
Western Bay of Plenty District Council civil defence duty controller Peter Watson said 11 of its 19 elder housing units flooded and residents were evacuated.
Most of the pensioners were evacuated to the Waihī Beach RSA or were staying with family and friends. The council had organised back-up accommodation for the remaining residents, Watson said.
The council was checking other places around Waihī Beach that were known to flood. It had had reports of the Waihī Beach Surf Lifesaving Club also flooding.
Watson said Waihī Beach and Athenree had been the worst hit by the flooding, recording 60mm of “intense rainfall” in an hour.
“The weather may have passed but the impact hasn’t. We have people on the ground and others on their way to help assess things and get in touch with anyone affected.
“Our Waihī Beach community response team have also been activated.”
He said the key information for people was to go to friends and family first if they needed to evacuate.
Builder James Austin said the rain started bucketing down about 1pm, and the heavy downpours didn’t let up for an hour.
“It came out of nowhere.” One man’s house had been filled with a least 150mm of water and a car that tried to drive through the floodwaters broke down, he said.
Austin said the floodwaters had trapped him and his workmates because they could not use the flooded roads.
Resident Mandie Thompson said there was “so much intense rain in such a short space of time”.
“At about 1.50pm, I was outside checking the neighbour’s property and noticed a large puddle forming on Browns Drive at the end of Mayor View Terrace.
“About 10 minutes later, there was a torrent of fast-moving water flowing over the road and into the reserve.”
Thompson said she saw a car submerged halfway up the driver’s door and a man wading through waist-deep water.
Waihī Beach resident Angela, who did not want her surname published, said “big drains” drained water “straight on to the back of those council flats”.
“That’s why they got flooded — it rose so fast, so quickly, I’ve never seen anything like it . . . Our road was like a river,” she said of Fyfe Rd.
Angela said she saw firemen walking around “up to their chest in water”.
Waihī Beach resident Allan Sole, who is also a Western Bay of Plenty District councillor, said he knew of “a few houses” which had been evacuated.
Sole said there was a “horrendous amount of rain” and “there’s a lot of water lying around”.
”But it has definitely started to drain away.”
A Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) spokesman said it received a report at 2.03pm of a car stuck in floodwaters.
Fenz then received a few phone calls from the northern end of Waihī Beach alerting them to “widespread flooding” in the area.
The spokesman said “multiple evacuations” had taken place, with the Waihī Beach RSA being an evacuation point.
Police, Fenz and surf lifesaving crew helped with the evacuations, he said.
MetService had earlier issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the Western Bay of Plenty, Whakatāne, Rotorua and Kawerau yesterday afternoon, but was lifted later in the day.