At least 4 dead as New Zealand roiled by flash floods, landslides for third day
- Police confirm that a man who was missing after being swept away on Friday in Onewhero, a rural village near Auckland, has died
- Auckland and now Waitomo District under state of emergency, with forecaster warning of more severe weather to come
Battered since Friday, Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, remained under a state of emergency. The nation’s weather forecaster, MetService, warned of more severe weather on Sunday and Monday for the north island. Intense rainfall could also cause surface and flash flooding, it said.
“We know that there is potential for more adverse weather tonight,” said Auckland Emergency Management controller Rachel Kelleher.
The emergency covers large swathes of the north island, with Waitomo District – about 220km (140 miles) from Auckland – declaring a state of emergency late on Saturday.
A man missing after being swept away on Friday in Onewhero, a rural village about 70km south of Auckland, was confirmed dead, police said.
On Friday night, two bodies were found in floodwater at separate locations in the northern suburb of Wairau Valley, and a third was discovered on Saturday after a landslide brought down a home in central Auckland.
“The flooding situation has been a traumatic experience for everyone in Auckland,” New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni told reporters in the city on Sunday. “The most horrific part of it is that we’ve lost lives.”
The country’s largest city saw 249mm of rainfall on Friday, smashing the previous record of 161mm in a 24-hour period.
