Two saved, one dead, after ‘extreme, tricky’ rescue
Two people managed to escape, but one perished when their vehicle became stuck while crossing a flooded ford.
The vehicle became submerged when the driver tried to cross the ford at Silver Stream in North Taieri, just outside Dunedin, on Tuesday night.
Two people were able to get out of the vehicle, but a third person did not.
Their body was found inside the vehicle yesterday morning, a police spokesperson said.
It was one of three river rescues late Tuesday during a night of wild weather across the South Island.
One was at Okuku River in North Canterbury where a man and his five dogs were rescued, while another person escaped their car that became submerged in the Heathcote River in suburban Christchurch.
Otago Regional Rescue Helicopter chief pilot Graeme Gale said the rescue team battled ‘‘extreme’’ conditions at Silver Stream, including strong winds, low clouds and a significant amount of heavy rain.
Gale said only the back of the vehicle was out of the water when rescuers arrived after 9pm.
One rescuer was winched down to the vehicle, where they attached a rope for a tow truck to pull the vehicle out.
‘‘It was an intense and tricky job,’’ Gale said.
The area where the vehicle went in could get ‘‘very dangerous very quickly’’, he said.
In Christchurch, a person escaped unscathed from a crashed car that ended up in the flood-swollen Heathcote River on Tuesday evening.
A family member at the scene yesterday said the driver got herself out of the car.
Emergency services were called to Ashgrove Tce in Somerfield just before 8pm.
The vehicle was still in the river yesterday morning.