Source: Radio New Zealand
Te Araroa on the East Coast. Supplied
Pictures have emerged of damage in Te Araroa on the East Coast.
The Emergency Minister Mark Mitchell told RNZ the area was “like a warzone”, and a group of seven were rescued from a roof in Hick’s Bay.
It remained cut off by road, with State Highway 35 is closed from Tolaga Bay to Opotiki. Okitu to Tolaga Bay has been reopened, but people are being warned to avoid any unnecessary travel.
Images from Punaruku show washed out roads, houses inundated with woody debris and brown flood water, and cars and fences buried half a metre or more in mud.
There are more than 300 homes on the East Coast without power. Supplied
Police said seven people trapped on a roof in Te Araroa were rescued by FENZ and were being evacuated by helicopter for medical assessment.
Maree Brownlie, who ran the Twilight Coffee Garden in Te Araroa, told RNZ it was a family nearby – including their small children – who were rescued after being up on their roof for hours.
There are more than 300 homes on the East Coast, including Wairoa, without power.
From the air
Meanwhile, RNZ reporter Kate Green took off from Whakatane Airport on Thursday morning to survey the damage from above.
River levels were high, and the water was brown, with some woody debris present, snaking through the land and occasionally overtopping the banks to flood farmland on either side.
Flyover whakatane to Ruatoria. RNZ/Kate Green
According to locals, in these parts, the damage wasn’t as bad as Cyclone Gabrielle.
But conditions meant it had not yet been possible to land in Te Araroa by midday on Thursday.
RNZ hopes to bring you news from the ground in Te Araroa on Thursday.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
